Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/455

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BRU—BRY
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duluess of intellect (whence his surname of Brutus), which character, however, he had assumed with a view both to his present security and future revenge. The opportunity came when Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, was outraged by Sextus Tarquinius ; and he took a leading part, together with her husband and father, in expelling the family of the Tarquinii from Home. He and Collatinus were there fore elected consuls, or rather praetors, which was the original title. In a conspiracy formed afterwards for the restoration of the banished dynasty, the two sons of Brutus were found to be deeply implicated, and were executed by sentence of their father, and in his sight. The Etruscans of the cities of Veil and Tarquinii making an attempt to restore Tarquinius to the throne, a battle took place be tween them and the Komans, in which Junius Brutus engaged Aruns, son of the deposed king, in single combat on horseback, and both fell by each other s hands. The Roman matrons are said to have mourned a year for him, as " the avenger of woman s honour," and a statue was

erected to him on the Capitol.

Many members of the family rose to eminence in the Republic, and are found, as plebeians, ranged on the popular side. The most distinguished of these was Decius Junius Brutus, consul, 325 B.C.

In later times came Marcus Junius Brutus, a jurist of high authority, considered as one of the founders of Roman civil law, to whom Cicero dedicates his treatise called Orator. His son, of the same name, made a great reputation at the Roman bar, chiefly by undertaking pro secutions, and from the vehemence and bitterness of his speeches became known as " the Accuser."

Decius Junius Brutus first served under Julius Cæsar in Gaul, and afterwards commanded his fleet, and was held by him in great honour and esteem. Nevertheless, whether from patriotism or from lower motives, he joined in the conspiracy against his patron, and, like his relative Marcus Junius Brutus, was one of his assassins. He afterwards resisted the attempt of Antony to obtain absolute power ; and after heading the republican armies against him for some time with success, was deserted by his soldiers in Gaul, betrayed by one of the native chiefs, and put to death by order of Antony, 43 B.C.

Best known of ail is Marcus Junius Brutus, son of a father of the same name (treacherously put to death by order of Pompey during the civil wars), and of Servilia, sister of Cato of Utica. Young Marcus was only eight years old at his father s death, and was educated with great care by his mother and uncles. He at first practised as an advocate. In spite of his father s fate, he at first supported the cause of Pompey against Caesar, but was pardoned by the latter after the victory of Pharsalia, and subsequently appointed by him to the government of Cisalpine Gaul. His justice and moderation won him great honour from the provincials under his rule. Influenced probably by his friend Cains Cassius, he afterwards joined in the conspiracy against the great dictator, and was one of the foremost in his assas sination. He maintained the cause of the republic by seizing and holding against Antony s forces the province of Macedonia, where he was joined by Cassius. But at Philippi they were defeated by Antony and Octavianus Caisar, and rather than be taken prisoner, he fell on his sword, 42 B.C. He was an earnest student through all his active life, and is said to have been employed in his tent, on the night before the battle of Pharsalia, in making an abridgment of Pausanias.[1] He wrote several philosophical treatises and some poetry, but nothing has survived. He combined with these tastes the incongruous occupation of a money-lender, Cicero and King Ariobarzanes being amongst his clients. His second wife was his cousin Portia, daughter of Cato.

BRUTUS, or Brute, is asserted in the fabulous history of Geoffrey of Monmouth to have been the grandson of Æneas, and to have destroyed the race of giants in Britain, to which he gave his name, founding there the city of New Troy, afterwards London.

BRUX, a city in the circle of Saatz, in the Austrian king dom of Bohemia, on the River Bila. It consists of an old town, surrounded with walls, and three suburbs, and con tains, besides the courts and public offices of the circle, nine churches, three monasteries, a gymnasium, barracks, a military college, and an educational establishment of Piarists. Its inhabitants are partly engaged in the coal mines, and in the preparation of salts from the Seidli .z waters in the vicinity. A battle was fought here in 1421 between the Hussites and Saxons; and in 1G4G the Swedes captured the fort of Landswert, now dismantled. Population in 1869 (including Taschenberg), 6102.

BRUYÈRE, Jean de la. See La Bruyère.

BRYANT, Jacob (1715-1804), a writer on theological and mythological subjects, was born at Plymouth in 1715. His father had a place in the customs there, and was after wards stationed in Kent, where his son was first sent to a provincial school, whence he was removed to Eton. Here he appears to have remained till 1736, the date of his election to King s College, Cambridge, where he took his degrees of bachelor and master of arts in 1740 and 1744. He returned to Eton in the capacity of private tutor to the duke of Marl- borough, then marquis of Bland ford ; and the good taste which his pupil showed through life, in the protection of the fine arts, and in the pursuit of science, sufficiently demon strated the beneficial influence of his instructor s example. In 1756 he went to the Continent as private secretary to the duke of Marlborough, then master-general of the ordnance and commancler-in -chief of the forces in Germany ; and he was rewarded after his return, for his various ser vices to the family, by a lucrative appointment in the ordnance, which allowed him ample leisure to indulge his literary tastes. Bryant died in his eighty-ninth year, on the 14 th November 1804, in consequence of a fall from his chair while reaching up for a book in his library. He left his library to King s College, having, however, previously made some valuable presents out of it to the king and to the duke of Marlborough. He bequeathed 2000 to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and .1000 for the use of the superannuated collegers of Eton School.


His principal works are the New System of Analysis of Ancient Mythology, wherein an attempt is made to divest tradition of fall c, and to reduce truth to its original purity, 3 vols. 4to, 1774-76, which is fantastic and now wholly valueless ; An Address to J)r Priestley on the Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity, 8vo, 1780 ; Vindicws Flariance ; Observations on the Poems of Thomas Piowlcy, in which the authenticity of these poems is ascertained, 2 vols. 12mo, 17S1 ; Treatise on the Authenticity of the Scriptures, and the Truth o/ the Christian Religion, 1792 ; Observations upon the leagues inflicted upon the Egyptians, Svo, 1794; Observations on a Treatise, entitled Inscription of the Plain of Troy, by Mr do Chevalier, 4to, 1795: A Dissertation concerning the War of Troy, and the expedition of the 6 recks, as described by Homer, showing that no such expedition was ever undertaken, and that no such city in Phrygia existed, 4to, 1796 ; Observations on the Vindication of^Homer, written by J.B.S. Morritt, Esq., 4to, 1799 ; The Sentiments of Philo Judccus concern ing the Word of God, Svo, 1797 ; Dissertations on various Subjects in the Old Testament.

BRYAXIS, a Greek sculptor, the contemporary of Scopas

and Praxiteles, with whom he took part in the sculptures of the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, about 345 B.C. Of his other works the following are mentioned : five colossal figures of gods at Rhodes, Bacchus (Liber Pater) at Cniclus, a group of yEsculapius and Hygeia at Megara, Apollo in

the grove of Daphne at Antioch, a statue of Pasiphac, and

  1. "Is not the leaf turned down Where I left reading ? " Shakesp. Jul. Cæsar, Act iv. sc. 3.