Marcus Brutus

Roman general, one of the conspirators in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Though he is Caesar's friend and a man of honour, Brutus joins in the conspiracy against Caesar's life, convincing himself that Caesar's death is for the greater good of Rome. He argues, “And therefore think him as a serpent's egg / Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous; / And kill him in the shell.” It is at Brutus's knife thrust that the dying Caesar utters the famous “Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!”