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Life in the Roman Army and the Realities of Rome

Khalid Elhassan November 19, 2021 37 min

Octavian and Mark Antony oversee the proscription of the optimates in 43 BC. Alamy

‘The Oath of Brutus’, by Fragonard Alexander Evarist. University Online Club

24. A Rebel With a Cause

Lucius Junius Brutus pulled the knife out of Lucretia’s breast, waved the bloody blade around to stir up the public, vowed revenge against her assailant and the royal family and led a popular revolt. By 507 BC, the monarchy was done with, and Rome had become a republic, with Brutus its first chief magistrate. He epitomized the ideal of devotion to duty and severe impartiality in its fulfillment: he condemned his own sons to death when they joined a conspiracy to restore the kings.

Tradition holds that Brutus was killed in a battle against a royal army, in single combat with the son of the king he had ousted. He established many of the basic institutions of the Roman Republic, which lasted for half a millennium before it collapsed and was done away with by Julius Caesar and Augustus. Many of Brutus’ Republican institutions continued for centuries more, in altered and reduced form, as emperors strove to at least pay lip service to the republican facade.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.