the hands of his opponent, who put him to death in 43 B. C.
BRUTUS, LUCIUS JUNIUS, an ancient Roman hero, son of Marcus Junius, by the daughter of the elder Tarquin. He saved his life from the persecutions of Tarquin the Proud by feigning himself insane, whence his name Brutus (stupid). On the suicide of Lucretia, however, he threw off the mask, and headed the revolt against the Tarquins. Having secured their banishment, he proposed to abolish the regal dignity and introduce a free government, with the result that he was elected to the consulship, in which capacity he condemned his own sons to death for conspiring to restore the monarchy. He fell in battle 509 B. C.
BRUTUS, MARCUS JUNIUS, an illustrious Roman, one of the murderers of Julius Cæsar. His mother was the sister of Cato. He at first sided with Pompey, but, being treated with great lenity after the battle of Pharsalia, he attached himself to Cæsar, by whom he was greatly caressed and trusted. But the stern Republican spirit of Brutus rendered it impossible for all Cæsar's kindness to him to reconcile him to Cæsar's ambition; and he at length conspired with Cassius and others, and slew him on the Ides of March 44 B. C. Antony succeeded in exciting the popular indignation against the murderers, who fled from Rome, and raised an army, of which Brutus and Cassius took the command; but being totally defeated at the battle of Philippi, where they encountered the army of Antony and Octavianus, Brutus escaped with only a few friends, and believing his cause ruined urged his friend Strato to kill him. This for a time the latter refused to do, but at last, presenting the sword as he turned away his face, the noble Roman fell on it and expired, 36 B. C., in the 43d year of his age.
MARCUS JUNIUS BRUTUS
BRYACEÆ, urn mosses, a natural order of muscals, distinguished by having the spore cases valveless, with an operculum without elaters. Lindley enumerated 44 genera, and, with a query, 1,100 species as belonging to the order. They are found in all humid climates, but abound in the temperate rather than in the polar regions. The word is also applied to a large group of acrocarpous mosses having a double row of teeth, the inner united at the base by a common plicate membrane. It constitutes part of the order bryaceæ.
BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS, an American political leader, born in Salem, Ill., March 19, 1860. He was graduated at Illinois College in 1881, preparing subsequently for the bar at Union Col-
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
