Marcus Junius Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus was born in or about 85 BCE, as the eldest son of a Roman politician with the same name, a man who never made it to the top. Father Brutus was killed in 78 by Gnaeus Pompey, a young general who was to become famous. The boy was educated by the half-brother of his mother Servilia, Marcus Porcius Cato, and was later adopted by a relative of his mother, Quintus Servilius Caepio. In 59, a man named Vettius declared that Brutus and several other men were part of a conspiracy to kill Pompey. In fact, there was no such conspiracy, and one of the consuls of that year, the popular politician Gaius Julius Caesar. Meanwhile, Brutus served as military commander in Cilicia and Macedonia. Politically, he had sided with conservative politicians like Cicero and Cato, who wanted to defend the rights of the Senate against the generals. When the inevitable war between Caesar and Pompey broke out in January 49, Brutus and the conservatives sided with the latter, and were defeated in August 48 in the battle of Pharsalus in Greece. Caesar showed clemency to the son of his lover. Some 60 senators conspired to assassinate the dictator, and Brutus, who was close to Caesar, became one of the leaders of the plot. Decimus Brutus and his friend Cassius were also