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SPQR: The Men Who Made and Secured the Roman Republic

Khalid Elhassan January 3, 2025 13 min

Roman - The Oath of Junius Brutus, by Fragonard Alexander Evarist — The Oath of Junius Brutus, by Fragonard Alexander Evarist. University Online

12. End of the Monarchy, and Birth of the Republic

Brutus Condemning His Sons to Death, by Guillaume Guillon Lethiere, 1788. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

By 507 BC, the monarchy was done with, and Rome had been transformed into a republic, with Brutus as 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 he was killed during a battle against a royal army, in single combat with a son of the king whom Brutus had ousted. He is credited with establishing many of basic institutions of the Roman Republic, which lasted for about 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.