Ju'nius Brutus was the son of Marcus Ju'nius, who was put to death by Tarquin the Proud, and the grandson of Tarquin the elder.

He had received an excellent education from his father, and had, from nature, strong sense and an inflexible attachment to virtue; but knowing that Tarquin had murdered his father and his eldest brother, he counterfeited a fool, in order to escape the same danger, and thence obtained the surname of Bru'tus.

Tarquin, thinking his folly real, despised the man; and having possessed himself of his estate, kept him as an idiot in his house, merely with a view of making sport for his children.
21.

Brutus, however, only waited this opportunity to avenge the cause of his family.

He ordered Lucre'tia's dead body to be brought out to view, and exposing it in the public forum, inflamed the ardour of the citizens by a display of the horrid transaction.