Lucius Junius Brutus

Lucius Junius Brutus died around 500 BC, remembered as the man who ended Rome's monarchy. After his uncle Tarquinius Superbus's reign culminated in the rape and suicide of Lucretia, Brutus led the expulsion and became one of the Republic's first two consuls. He then forced his fellow consul Tarquinius Collatinus to resign and crushed a conspiracy to restore the old regime. The Junia gens claimed him as founder, a lineage that reached Marcus Junius Brutus, who would plant a dagger in Julius Caesar centuries later. Whether Brutus existed as told is uncertain - some scholars credit the Etruscan king Porsenna with the overthrow, and the Junii's plebeian status casts doubt on the consulship. He may have been less historical actor than symbol: the internal rupture that split monarchy from republic.