As readers of William Shakespeare know, a dying Caesar turned to one of the assassins and condemned him with his last breath. It was Caesar’s friend, Marcus Junius Brutus.
“Et tu, Brute?” – “You too, Brutus?” is what Shakespeare has Caesar say in the Tragedy of Julius Caesar!
Now most of us who may not have read Shakespeare or at least the original versions of Shakespeare know this only from well, general knowledge! Though in the 11th grade I did have a Shakespeare phase where I got this huge book of Shakespeare plays and started reading them! The first one was Romeo and Juliet! The story started so slow and though everyone knows the story, it still took me couple of days to get through it! Only to realise that I was reading the summary and the actual play starts now! Which was also my end of the Shakespeare phase!
The point here was that the words about BRUTUS was not made by Caesar! Yes! Caesar never said these words! And Brutus was neither his closest friend nor his biggest betrayer, not by a long shot. The worst traitor was another man: Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. Decimus was a distant cousin of Marcus Brutus. Shakespeare puts two men in charge of the plot to kill Caesar, Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Shakespeare mentions Decimus but misspells his name as Decius and downplays his role. But ancient sources make clear that Decimus was a leader of the conspiracy!
There are also other reports which say that Caesar said something else but to Brutus!
So when Brutus pulled out his dagger, he said something in Greek. And what he said was “Kaì sú, téknon” (You too, child). If he had said this then there have been three possibilities of what he meant!
One is that this is part of a line of a Greek tragedy that Caesar was quoting, indicating how educated and cultivated he was. It would be as if an English-speaking politician who was being assassinated should suddenly say a line in French!
A second possibility is ancient curse tablets. The Romans believed in curse tablets. You would get an inscribed tablet against one of your enemies and you would have it buried. And the typical thing to say on a curse tablet is “Kaì sú” (You too) – and this is what should happen to you, as bad things have happened to me!
The third possibility, and the most soap opera like is that the key word here is not “Kaì sú”, but ”téknon” (child)! When Caesar was young, he had an affair with one of the most prominent women in Rome: Servilia, who was the half-sister of Caesar’s arch-enemy, Cato the Younger. And she was supposed to be the greatest love of Caesar’s life – so much a love that Caesar bought her a pearl that was worth a king’s ransom. She also happened to be the mother of Brutus!
And there was a rumour that Caesar was the natural father of Brutus: that Brutus was, Caesar’s lovechild! So, the idea is that by saying to Brutus, “You too, child”, Caesar was confirming the rumour and saying, in effect: you’re my son and you have just killed your father. You have committed parricide – which is the most heinous crime that a Roman could commit! A regular soap opera there!
Then again these are simple creative liberties taken for historical events! Do remember that such historical figures are Mortals! They would groan and may be even cry out in pain and anguish! So any story of a dying historical man or woman telling something historically significant or even some grand words should be taken as, well, a story and nothing else!
That of course would not stop you from crying “et tu Brute” anytime some close friend of your cheats you! Of course you may feel like stabbing the other friend who would correct you saying that it is not ET TU BRUTE but ET TU Broote! Or You can zimply listen to someone who says ET TU BRUTUS! In each case the core thing is the fact that he or she stabbed you! What Julius Caesar said was immaterial!
Important though is the fact that you must know who is the chief of your Naval staff!
It’s Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, PVSM, AVSM, NM
Jai hind…
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