BRUTUS, MARCUS

Roman general, one of the conspirators in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Though he is Caesar's friend and a man of high honour, Brutus nevertheless convinces himself to join in the conspiracy against Caesar's life, believing that Caesar's death is for the greater good. He argues, And therefore think him as a serpent's egg / Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous; / And kill him in the shell. It is at Brutus' knife thrust that the dying Caesar utters the famous Et tu, Brut? Then fall, Caesar! Essentially an idealist, Brutus makes a series of errors. Twice visited by the ghost of Caesar, he ignores Cassius's advice to withdraw their forces from the plains at Philippi, loses the battle with Antony and Octavius, and takes his own life.