Brutus Condemning his Sons to Death

Lucius Junius Brutus orchestrated a revolt to overthrow the last king of Rome and establish the Roman Republic in 509 BCE. Never again, Brutus decreed, would one man rule over the Roman people. However, in an act of defiance the brothers of Brutus’s wife Vitellia, and Brutus’s sons, Titus Junius and Tiberius Junius, secretly plotted to restore the monarchy. Their machinations were discovered and the consuls sentenced the traitors to death. Brutus was ordered to witness his sons’ executions; his stoic acceptance of their gruesome murder and his devotion to the Republic over his family was the powerful moral of this bloody tale.

This passage from Roman history was a preferred subject not only for Guillaume Lethi�re, but also his rival Jacques-Louis David.