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Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus


Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus (or Gallaecus or Callaecus) (180 BC – 113 BC) was a consul of the Roman Republic for the year 138 BC together with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio. He was an optimate politician and a military commander in Hispania and in Illyria. He was the son of Marcus Junius Brutus (consul in 178 BC) and brother of Marcus Junius Brutus (praetor in 88 BC). He had a son also named Decimus Junius Brutus (consul in 77 BC) and his grandson was Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus.

Deciumus Iunius Brutus belonged to the optimates, a political faction which supported the interests of the aristocracy and was opposed to the plebeian tribunes (the representatives of the plebs) and populares, a political faction which championed the cause of the poor and wanted reforms to help them. During his consulship he and his colleague P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, opposed the plebeian tribunes. The plebeian tribune Gaius Curiatus sent both consuls to prison because they did not allow the plebeian tribunes to select ten men who would be exempt from military service. The two consuls also opposed a proposal by the tribunes to purchase grain from abroad because the price of grain was going up. Scipio Nasica made a speech which quietened the restless plebs.

Appian (who wrongly identified Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus as a praetor called Sextius Junius Brutus) wrote that (in 138 BC) Brutus was sent to the Roman province of Hispania Ulterior (Further Spain, in modern Andalusia in the south) to deal with many guerrilla bands which were raiding Lusitania in emulation of Viriathus, the Lusitanian chieftain who led the Lusitanian War (or Fiery War, 155-139 BC) against the Romans and who had been assassinated the year before. The guerrilla bands raided Lusitania. Lusitania was between the Rivers Durius (Douro) and Tagus. Therefore, it covered part of central Portugal and part of northern Portugal. It lay to the northwest of Hispania Ulterior.


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