[d] This was the famous Marcus Junius Brutus, who stood forth in the cause of liberty, and delivered his country from the usurpation of Julius Cæsar. Cicero describes him in that great tragic scene, brandishing his bloody dagger, and calling on Cicero by name, to tell him that his country was free. _Cæsare interfecto, statim cruentum altè extollens Marcus Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nominatim exclamavit, atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus._ Philippic, ii. s. 28. The late Doctor Akenside has retouched this passage with all the colours of a sublime imagination.
Look then abroad through nature, through the range Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres, Wheeling unshaken through the void immense, And speak, O man! does this capacious scene With half that kindling majesty dilate Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate, Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm Aloft extending, like eternal Jove When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel, And bade the Father of his Country hail! For, lo! the tyrant prostrate in the dust, And Rome again is free. PLEASURES OF IMAG. b. i. ver. 487.
According to Quintilian, Brutus was fitter for philosophical speculations, and books of moral theory, than for the career of public oratory. In the former he was equal to the weight and dignity of his subject: you clearly saw that he believed what he said. _Egregius vero multoque quam in orationibus præstantior Brutus, suffecit ponderi rerum; scias eum sentire quæ dicit._ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.
For Asinius Pollio and Messala, see section xii. note [e].