Brutus

Summary

[Idealism in public life, and the use and abuse of reason, are recurring themes in Bayle's work, but they are clarified in his interpretation of the tragedy of Brutus. Whether theist or agnostic, Christian or pagan, some politicians who pursue honourable goals are apt to pin their hopes on a word such as ‘justice’ which they mistake for a moral being. Accordingly, the idealist, confronting defeat by the party of opportunism, is apt to give way, like Brutus, to disillusion and despair. Bayle's response is to observe that the outcome of all public action is determined by general laws and the competence of the actor. He assures us that honourable policies are best – both for their own sake and because a just cause in no way ‘averts or retards the victory’.]

Brutus (Marcus Junius), son of Marcus Junius Brutus, and of Servilia the sister of Cato, was one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. He was the greatest republican that ever lived. He believed that no one was obliged to keep their word or sacred oath with those who wielded a tyranny over Rome (A). He was imbued with those noble ideas of liberty and love of country which the Greek and Roman authors describe so gloriously. He was so beguiled, I say, that neither his obligation to Julius Caesar nor his certain prospect of rising as far as he could desire under the new master of Rome could outweigh the passion he felt to restore affairs to their former state through the assassination of the tyrant.