Decimus Junius Brutus, belonging to the family of the Junii, was son of Decimus Junius Brutus, elected consul in the year 677, and of Sempronia, who performed so celebrated a part in Catiline’s conspiracy. He was adopted by A. Postumius Albinus, consul in 655, and took, for this reason, the surname of Albinus, by which we find him sometimes designated. When Cæsar took him into Gaul, he was still very young; the “Commentaries” apply to him the epithet adolescens. He must have returned to Rome in January, 704, since a letter of Cicero mentions his presence there at that period. (Epist. Familiar., VIII. 7.) The year following he commanded Cæsar’s fleet before Marseilles. (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, I. 36.—Dio Cassius, XLI. 19.) He gained, although with unequal forces, a naval victory over L. Domitius. (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, II. 5.) Having received from Cæsar, in 706, the government of Transalpine Gaul, he repressed, in 708, an insurrection of the Bellovaci. (Titos Livius, Epitome, CXIV.) An object of the special favours of his old general, who felt for him a warm affection, D. Brutus, along with Antony and Octavius, was associated in the triumph which Cæsar celebrated in 709, on his return from Spain, and mounted with them on the car. (Plutarch, Antony, 13.) By his will of the Ides of September, the Dictator named him one of the guardians of Octavius, and made him one of his second heirs (Dio Cassius, XLIV. 35.—Appian, Civil Wars, II, 143.—Suetonius, Cæsar, 83); he caused to be given him, for the year 712, the government of Cisalpine Gaul. In spite of this friendship, of which Cæsar had given him so many proofs, and which the latter believed to be paid by a requital, Brutus, who had remained faithful to his benefactor in the civil war, lent his ear to the proposals of the conspirators, and yielded to the seductions of M. Brutus, his kinsman. He not only went to the Senate to assist in striking the victim, but he accepted the mission of going to persuade the Dictator, who was hesitating, to repair to the curia. (Dio Cassius, XLIV. 14, 18.—Appian, Civil Wars, II. 115.—Plutarch, Cæsar, 70.) Exposed to public hatred (Cicero, Philippic., X. 7), and intimidated by the threats of Antony, he left Rome to go and take possession of the province which Cæsar had caused to be assigned to him. (Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, XIV. 13.)

He appears, however, to have acted but feebly in favour of the party he had embraced. Antony, having obtained from the people, in exchange for Macedonia, the province commanded by Brutus (Appian, Civil Wars, III. 30), the latter refused to abandon his government, and, supported by Cicero, he obtained from the Senate an edict maintaining him in it (Cicero, Philippic., III. 4.—Appian, Civil War, III. 45), which led to an armed contest between the two competitors. Pursued by his rival, Brutus threw himself into Modena, and there sustained a long siege (Appian, Civil Wars, III. 49.—Titus Livius, Epitome, CXVII), which had for its final result the celebrated battle in which Antony was defeated. D. Brutus, overlooked among new actors in this sanguinary drama, remained in it almost a mere spectator. (Dio Cassius, XLVI. 40.) He then ranged himself on the side of Octavius, yet without the existence of any very close or very sincere intimacy between these two men. He continued to exercise an important command during the war, but fortune was not long in turning against him. Pressed by Antony, who had united with Lepidus, and threatened personally by the prosecutions which Octavius, armed with the law Pedia, was directing against the murderers of Cæsar (Titus Livius, Epitome, CXX.—Dio Cassius, XLVI. 53), he found himself deserted by his troops, and, after a vain attempt to cross into Macedonia, he directed his steps with a small escort towards Aquileia; but a Gaulish chief, named Camillus, betrayed towards him the rites of hospitality, kept him prisoner, and sent information of what he had done to Antony. The old lieutenant of Cæsar immediately sent Furius with a party of cavalry, who slew Brutus, and carried away his head. (Appian, Civil Wars, III. 97, 98.—Velleius Paterculus, III. 63, 64.) Brutus was one of the correspondents of Cicero, who gives him praise, especially for his constancy in friendship, of which he was certainly little worthy.

8. PUBLIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS.

Publius Sulpicius Rufus, who belonged to the same family as S. Sulpicius Galba, served, in 705, the cause of Cæsar in Spain (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, I. 74); he commanded in the following year, with the title of prætor, the fleet which was cruising at Vibo, on the coast of Bruttium (Cæsar, De Bella Civili, III. 101); subsequently he obtained the government of Illyria, a country where he had served in the ranks of the Cæsarians, and consequently succeeded Q. Cornificius (Cæsar, De Bello Afric., 10; De Bello Alexandrin., 42). A letter of Cicero, addressed to him (Epist. Familiar., XIII. 77), shows that he was still in that province in 709. We know nothing certain relating to his actions. It has been supposed with probability that he is the same with a P. Sulpicius, censor under the triumvirate, and mentioned in a Latin inscription (Tabula Collatina), to which Drumann refers (tom. i., p. 528).

9. LUCIUS MUNATIUS PLANCUS.

Lucius Munatius Plancus, whose name is found in several inscriptions and on a rather great number of medals (see especially Orelli, Inscriptions, N. 591), belonged to an illustrious plebeian family. Intimate at first with Cato, he subsequently gained the entire affection of Cæsar (Plutarch, Cato of Utica, 42.—Cicero, Epist. Familiar., X. 24), and remained faithful to him to the last. After having served in Gaul, he became, in 705, one of his most active lieutenants in Spain (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, I. 40), and afterwards in Africa. (Cæsar, De Bello Afr., 4.) Cæsar caused to be given to him, for the year 710, the government of Transalpine Gaul, without the Narbonnese and Belgic Gaul (Appian, Civil Wars, III. 46—Cicero, Philipp., III. 15), and named him, with P. Brutus, for the consulship in 712 (Velleius Paterculus, II. 63.—Dio Cassius, XLVI. 53); he was then in great favour with the Dictator: Cicero made his approaches through him to obtain Cæsar’s favour. (Epist. Familiar., X. 3; XIII. 29.)

After the murder of Cæsar, Plancus, who no doubt, like Antony, feared the vengeance of the party of the conspirators, proposed an amnesty, in concert with him and Cicero (Plutarch, Brutus, 22), and hastened to go into the province which had been assigned to him. In Gaul he founded the colonies of Lugdunum and Raurica (Orelli, Inscriptiones, No. 590.—Dio Cassius, XLVI. 50); subsequently, gained by Antony, he abandoned to his vengeance, during the proscription, Plotius, his own brother. (Appian, Civil Wars, IV. 12.—Valerias Maximus, VI. 8, § 5.) In 712, Plancus took, with Lepidus, on the 1st of January, the consulship which Cæsar had destined for him. (Dio Cassius, XLVI. 53; LXVII. 16.) In the war of Perusia, he commanded the troops of Antony, who sent him, in 714, into Asia. In 719 he still governed Syria for that triumvir, and he has been accused of the death of Sextus Pompey. (Appian, Civil Wars, V. 144.) He proceeded to Egypt with Antony, to the court of Cleopatra. (Velleius Paterculus, II. 83.) Foreseeing the ruin of Antony, of whom he has been reproached with being the base flatterer, he did not wait for the defeat of Actium to embrace the party of Octavius: he returned to Rome, and attacked his former friend bitterly in the Senate. (Velleius Paterculus, II. 83.) Dio Cassius (L. 3) accuses him of having revealed Antony’s will. From this time devoted to Octavius, he proposed, in 727, to confer upon him the title of Augustus. (Suetonius, Octavius, 7.—Velleius Paterculus, II. 91.) In 732, he held the office of censor. (Dio Cassias, LIV. 2.) The inscriptions and medals show that he was also invested with other dignities. The date of his death is unknown. Horace addressed to him one of his odes. (Book I., Ode 7.)

10. MARCUS LICINIUS CRASSUS.

Marcus Licinius Crassus Dives was the elder brother of young Crassus, whose place he had taken as Cæsar’s lieutenant in Gaul. Little is known of his life. Cicero, less intimate with him than with his younger brother, has mentioned him but slightly. (Epist. Familiar., 8.) He ranged himself on Cæsar’s side at the time of the civil war, and became, in 705, governor of Citerior Gaul. (Appian, Civil Wars, II. 41.—Justin, XLII. 4.) The time of his death is unknown.

11. CAIUS FABIUS.