Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/667

* BRUTTII. 591 BKTJYAS. the coast, of which the more important were Cro- tona, Rhegiuni, and Locri. The warlike Greeks subjected the natives and held them in slavery until after the Peloponnesian War. At that pe- riod the Lucanians came in from the north and still further oppressed the natives. At last, about the middle of the Fourth Century n.c, the people, rising against oppression, became their own mas- ters; they gained power rapidly, captured some of the Greek cities, and. assisted by the Luca- nians, held their own against the (Grecian arms. The Bruttii were powerful until after tlieir par- ticipation in the Samnite War against Rome, B.C. 282. Xot long afterwards they were sub- jected to Rome an<l gave up much of their terri- tory. In the Second Punic War they revolted and assisted Hannibal, for which they were pim- ished by Rome in the sacrifice of what little they had left of independence. At that time the Bruttii as a nation disappeared from history. In the new reorganization of Italy imder Augustus, BruHii and Lucnnin were joined to form the Third Region, and after the time of Diocletian, this region was organized as a province under a corrector, or governor. BRtr'TUS. A tragedy of Voltaire (1730), which suggested the tragedies MarcKs Brutus and JiDiiiis Brutus of Alfieri. (2) A tragedy of Catherine Bernard, produced bj- the Comedie Frangaise in 1000. BRUTUS, or The Fall of Tabquix. The title of a play by the American dramatist John Howard Payne I ISIS). BRUTUS, or BRUTE, the Tro,ia>-. The mythological first King of Britain, grandson of Aseanius, the son of ^t^neas. He unintentionally slew his father, Sylvius, and fled to Greece, thence to Britain, where he founded New Troy, or London. BRUTUS, LuciL-s -Junius. A Roman who figures in the legendary history of early Rome, as the hero who overturned the monarchical, and established the republican form of government. The legend nms that he was the son of a rich Roman. On his father's death Tarquin the Proud took possession of the property, and put an elder brother to death, and Brutus himself escaped the same fate only by feigning idiocy (hence the name Brutus, stupid). Sent with the two sons of Tanjuin to consult the oracle of Delphi about a prodigj', he asked the god who should be the next king. "He who first kisses his mother," was the reply. Returned to Italy, the brothers hastened to Rome to kiss their mother; but Brutus, pretending to slip, fell and kissed his mother earth. Remembering his own wrongs, and gifted with the strength and wisdom of one who was fulfilling the decrees of fate, Brutus, when the foul rape committed by one of the royal family upon l^ucretia had shocked the people, convoked them, placed himself at their head, and drove the kings from Rome. He is said to have been then elected one of the two first consuls (n.c. .50!!). That his chara(-ter as a stem old Roman hero might be comi)let«>, the legend adds that he sacrificed to the new Republic his own sons, detected in a conspiracy to restore the monarchy; and that at last he fell in mortal combat repelling an attack led on by one of the sons of Tanpiin. Little more, however, can be said to be established upon suHicient historical evidence with regard to Brutus, than that there existed a person of that name who held high office in Rome at a very early period. BRUTUS, JI.AKCus Junius (b.c, 85-42). One of the conspirators against Ca>sar. His father bore the same name, was a follower of JIarius, and, sutt'ering defeat from Pompey, was at the latter's direction put to death. At this time the sou was but eight years old, and his educa- tion was in part watched over by his uncle, Marcus Cato, whose philosophy he adopted. He studied and practiced law, like his father before him. but civil life was interrupted by political conditions. On the outbreak of hostilities be- tween C'lesar and Pompey, he gave his support to the man who destroyed his father. (';esar, how- ever, Tictor at Pharsalia, pardoned him, took him into favor, and appointed him Governor of Cisalpine Gaul. Here his conduct was that of a high-minded official, and in b.c. 44 the office of prwtor urbanus was conferred upon him by the same steadfast friend. It was while hold- ing this place that he became a conspirator against tlie promoter of his career. After the assassination of Caesar, unable to win a follow- ing, he escaped to Athens, and succeeded in rais- ing a large force and becoming powerful in Slace- donia. Cassius had been equally successful in equipping an army in Asia, and together they proceeded to Philippi, wdiere they joined bat- tle with Antony and Octavius. As commander of the Republican right, Brutus repulsed Octa- vius; while Cassius, overcome by Antony, and feeling that tlieir cause was lost, made an end of himself. This example Brutus soon followed. The glamor thrown over the character of Bru- tus by Shakespeare will, unhappily, not bear scrutiny. He was at one time a relentless usurer, and did not scruple to apply to Cicero as Governor of Cilieia for power to make unlaw- ful exactions. His political affiliations, too, ap- pear suspicious, and his joining the conspirator'* seems to have been the result of the seductive power of the astute Cassius rather than of any deep-set convictions. Somewhere he was weak or corrupt; but it is charitable to believe that the principles of his Stoic philosophy grew ujion him, and that he became worthier of his grand old uncle, Cato. His studies present him in his most amiable light: for, notwithstanding his militarj' successes, he was a studei't, :iot a man of action; a theorist, not a doer of deeds. All his writings have been lost. BRUX, bn.iks (Ger. Briickc, bridge: its Czech name Most, bridge, being a mere translation). A town in the Austrian Crownland of Bohemia, on the Biela, about ."JO miles northwest of Prague (Map: Austria-Hungary, C 1). Its principal buildings are the new Rathaus and the Gothic Dechanteikirche, built in 1.517. Briix is the centre of a productive brown-coal district, and manufactures sugar, cast iron, machinery, potash, and enameled ware, and has several brew- eries and distilleries. In the neighborhood are the bitter-water springs of Piillna and Seid- schiitz. Population, in ISflO, 14,i)00; in I90O. 21,500. The place was made a city in 1273 by King Ottokar II. BRUYAS, bn.i'ya', .Jacquks {1C37-1712). A Frciirli .Irsuit missionary. Of the place of his birth, or of his early career, little is known. He went to Canada in IGOti, and was sent among the Inxpiois Indians as a missionary. He studied