Nearly as shocking as the Rape of Lucretia, which led to the birth of the Roman Republic, is the tale of Brutus and his treacherous sons, which came to embody the values of the Republic.

In the year following the expulsion of Tarquinius the Proud, Rome’s last monarch, the exiled king sought to return to power. He sent envoys to Rome in an attempt to recover his property and estate—a ruse whose real purpose was to regain his throne. The envoys found favor among young patricians who pined for the privilege and excess they had enjoyed under Tarquinius—the austerity of the new Republic was too severe for their liking. The scheming Tarquins drew the disaffected youths into the heart of their conspiracy. Among them were members of the prominent Vitelli and Aquillii families, and, shockingly, the sons of Lucius Junius Brutus, founder of the Republic and a sitting Roman consul. 

The plot to restore the monarchy was discovered by a household slave named Vindicius, who overheard his master planning the revolt. He disclosed what he had learned to Brutus and his co-consul Valerius, including the whereabouts of letters with incontrovertible evidence of the conspiracy’s members and their crime: treason against Rome. Brutus’s sons Titus and Tiberius were named, charged, and imprisoned with the rest.

His sons’ actions thrust Brutus into an excruciating moral dilemma. His responsibility as paterfamilias of his family called for mercy and protection of his sons. His duty as consul was to uphold Roman law. Brutus did not flinch. He took his seat on the tribunal and sentenced his sons: they were to be stripped, scourged, and beheaded, the traditional punishment for Roman traitors.

The arresting painting above by Guillaume Guillon-Lethière depicts the scene. Brutus sits elevated on a dais, robed in red, tightly gripping his curule chair, unmoved by the cries for mercy in front of him. The decapitated corpse of one son lies beside the brown-clad executioner, who displays his head to the recoiling crowd. The other son faints at the preview of his death he has just witnessed.

Brutus became a paragon of Roman virtue by placing the honor of the Republic above the bonds of family. The agony of his dilemma showed all of Rome that preservation of the Republic and letter of the law stood above the interests of even its most powerful citizens. An example of national fidelity that set moral standards for generations to come.

Afterward, the slave who had discovered the plot was rewarded with freedom and Roman citizenship. He was thought to have been the first slave freed by the touching of a ceremonial staff to his shoulders. His name—Vindicius—was perhaps the origin of the word later given to the rod of manumission. As for Brutus, he would forever be the face of Roman resolve.

No matter the price.