E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Brutus (Marcus).
Cæsar’s friend, joined the conspirators to murder him, because he made himself a king.
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“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.)
