Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—B

Brutus

(Marcus). Cæsar's friend, joined the conspirators to murder him, because he made himself a king.

And thou, unhappy Brutus, kind of heart,
Whose steady arm, by awful virtue urged,
Lifted the Roman steel against thy friend.

Thomson: Winter, 524-6.

Et tu, Brute.
What! does my own familiar friend lift up his heel against me? The reference is to that Marcus Brutus whose “bastard hand stabbed Julius Cæsar.” (Suetonius.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Bruxellois
Brutum Fulmen
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