etu brutus

Factual Questions
1

Hi,

I was just curious what “etu brutus?” means, or if someone was to say the word “etu” in front of my name?

Thanks
skin2skin

2

thats ‘et tu, brutus’ (And you, brutus?) said to cesar when he saw that brutus was amongst those conspiring against him

3

sorry, that should be “said by cesar”

4

actually wasn’t it “Et tu brutE”. The e at the end being the vocative case. Could be wrong though.

5

Great…thanks a lot!!

6

To elaborate a bit more: Brutus was a friend of Julius Caesar, but he joined the conspiracy against Caesar “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome the more”. He believed that Caesar’s dictatorship was so dangerous for Rome that it would be better for him to be killed than to continue in power. Legend has it that Caesar tried to resist his attackers at first, until he saw that Brutus was among them. Once he saw that his own friend was one of the ones attacking him, he gave up.

So if someone says “Et tu, skin2skin”, they’re saying that you’re a backstabbing traitor, and they expected better from you.

7

TitoBenito, I’m not sure about the grammar part of it, but Shakespeare apparently agreed with you :slight_smile:

“Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar” is the whole quote (Julius Caesar Act 3, Scene 1)

critter42

8

lol…I hope that he is not saying that. I think it was more along the line of “and you”, as in; I agree with another person, too.

9

Caesar pardoned Brutus after he fought on the losing side at the battle of Pharsalia, and appointed him to several high offices.
There were also rumors that Brutus was actually Caesar’s natural son, making the betrayal all the worse.

10

Jethro and his pal Brutus was eatin’ some hog haunches one day down by the waterin’ hole, and Brutus asked his buddy “Hey, how many of them things has you et, anyhow?” and Jethro answered…

11

From Plutarch:

So Plutarch has Caesar saying nothing at all.

Another source (I’m not sure whom) reported that Caesar actually said (in Greek), “You, also, my son?” Which falls neatly in with the theory some have expressed that Caesar was Brutus’ father. It was well known that Caesar and Brutus’ mother, Servilia, were lovers. I don’t think anyone really buys the theory any more.

One of my profs once mentioned that the “You, also, my son?” line was suspiciously close to the Attic Greek equivalent of “You son of a bitch!”