Painting of the French artist Jacques Louis David “Lictors bring Brutus the bodies of his sons”. The size of the painting is 323 x 422 cm, canvas, oil. Lictors are Romans, the official ministers of the higher magistrates cum imperio, before whom they carried fasces.
The number of lictors of the magistrate was consistent with its meaning: the consuls had twelve lictors, the dictators twenty-four, the praetors in the city two lictors, and the provincial governors six. Lictors preceded the magistrate one by one, cleared the way for him in the crowd and watched him to be given proper honors. Execution of certain punishments by the magistrate also rested on the lictors. Brutus, Lucius Junius is the son of Mark Junius and the daughter of Tarquinius the Ancient.
Tradition says that in the persecutions of Tarquinius the Proud who tried to exterminate all members of the Brutus family as a result of their claims to the throne, Brutus escaped only by pretending to be half-confused, which is why he received the nickname brutus. During the pestilence that visited Rome, he accompanied the sons of Tarquinius to the Delphic oracle, who was presented with a golden rod concealed inside a wooden one. At the same priestess on the question of the king’s sons, who will rule in Rome after the death of their father, gave the answer: “He who first kisses his mother.”
The sons of Tarquinia decided to settle the matter by a toss. Brutus, however, immediately rushed to the ground and touched his lips to his mother’s land. When Lucretia, the wife of Collatin, stabbed herself in the chest with a dagger, not wanting to survive the dishonor suffered by the son of Tarquinius the Proud. Brutus, who witnessed the death of Lucretia, vowed to take revenge on the Tarquinive family and forced the audience to utter the same oath. Hurried to Rome, Brutus called the people and insisted on the deposition of the king, who was in the camp outside the city, and in exile of the royal family.
Instead of the king, two consuls, who were elected for one year, were vested with supreme authority; Brutus and Collatin were the first consuls. Tarquinius the Proud, after receiving news of his overthrow, hurried to Rome, but found the gate locked and met with resistance from the troops. Then he sent ambassadors to Rome, who were to demand his private property. The Romans agreed to this demand; sent, however, organized a conspiracy in which both Brutus’ sons were implicated. But one slave, named Vinditsiy, opened the plot. Brutus sentenced his own sons to death along with other conspirators, ordered the lictors to execute the verdict and himself was present at the execution of it.
(2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)