Marcus Junius Brutus

Marcus Junius Brutus (early June 85 BC – late October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a politician of the late Roman Republic and a member of the Assassin Order. He took a leading role in the assassination conspiracy against the Templar dictator Julius Caesar.

Early life
Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger was the son of Marcus Junius Brutus the Elder and Servilia Caepionis. His father was killed by Pompey the Great in dubious circumstances after he had taken part in the rebellion of Lepidus; his mother was the half-sister of Cato the Younger, and later became Julius Caesar's mistress. Some sources refer to the possibility of Caesar being his real father. Brutus' uncle, Quintus Servilius Caepio adopted him in about 59 BC, and Brutus was known officially for a time as Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus before he reverted to using his birth-name. However, following Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Brutus revived his adoptive name in order to illustrate his links to another famous tyrannicide, Servilius Ahala, from whom he was descended. He was, at some point, inducted into the Assassin Order.

Brutus held his uncle in high regard and his political career started when he became an assistant to Cato, during his governorship of Cyprus. During this time, he enriched himself by lending money at high rates of interest. He returned to Rome a rich man, where he married Claudia Pulchra. From his first appearance in the Senate, Brutus aligned with the Optimates (the conservative faction) against the First Triumvirate of Marcus Licinius Crassus, Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Gaius Julius Caesar. Around 45 BC, many senators began to fear Caesar's growing power following his appointment as dictator for life. Additionally, the Assassins discovered that the SPQR was secretly a Templar organization. Brutus was appointed to devise the conspiracy against Caesar by the other Assassins.

Assassination of Julius Caesar
At some point, Brutus discovered and explored the vault hidden beneath what would eventually become Santa Maria Aracoeli. He chose the temple concealing the entrance to the vault as a meeting place for the conspirators, and would include a drawing of the chamber itself within his scrolls. Inside the chamber, he was enlightened with visions of what would happen after Caesar's assassination.

Encouraged by these visions, Brutus devised the plan for the assassination. His wife was the only woman privy to the plot. The conspirators planned to carry out their plot on the Ides of March (March 15) that same year. On that day, Caesar was delayed going to the Senate because his wife, Calpurnia Pisonis, tried to convince him not to go. The Assassins feared the plot had been found out. Brutus persisted, however, waiting for Caesar at the Senate, and allegedly still chose to remain even when a messenger brought him news that would otherwise have caused him to leave. When Caesar finally did come to the Senate, they attacked him. Publius Servilius Casca Longus was allegedly the first to attack Caesar with a blow to the shoulder, which Caesar blocked. However, upon seeing Brutus was with the Assassins, he covered his face with his toga and resigned himself to his fate. The Assassins attacked in such numbers that they even wounded one another. Brutus is said to have been wounded in the hand.

Following the assassination, he returned to the temple where the Assassins held their meetings and left his heirloom armor and dagger there, to be found by the next person to stumble across it.

Death
After the assassination, the Senate passed an amnesty on the Assassins. This amnesty was proposed by Caesar's friend and co-consul Marcus Antonius. Nonetheless, uproar among the population caused Brutus and the other Assassins to leave Rome. Brutus settled in Crete from 44 to 42 BC, but was later defeated in battle and upon fleeing, committed suicide. His last words were "By all means must we fly; not with our feet, however, but with our hands." Brutus also uttered the well-known verse calling down a curse upon Antonius (Plutarch repeats this from the memoirs of Publius Volumnius): "Forget not, Zeus, the author of these crimes."

After Brutus' death, his followers tried to use the Shroud to bring him back. Brutus returned to life for a very brief moment, before inevitably dying once again. The attempt failed because the Shroud can reanimate a body, but it cannot recreate life.

Some time prior to 1500 AD, the Followers of Romulus discovered the temple, and found the armor and dagger within. They took the artifacts, hiding them in a chamber in the tunnels beneath Colle Palatino. The chamber was to only be opened with six keys, spread across various landmarks throughout Rome, hidden in some of the scrolls that Brutus had written concerning his involvement in the conspiracy to kill Caesar. In 1503, the then-Grand Master of the Assassin Order Ezio Auditore da Firenze managed to obtain all six keys and retrieved the armor from its chamber.

Trivia

 * In 1503, Giovanni Borgia relived some of Brutus' memories just like with his father Perotto Calderon's memories, indicating that Perotto and Giovanni may be Brutus' descendants. It is also possible that Giovanni experienced Brutus' memories because the Shroud was used both in an attempt to resurrect Brutus and also saved Giovanni's life.
 * Oddly enough, Dante Alighieri wrote in Inferno, the first part of The Divine Comedy, that Brutus, along with Gaius Cassius Longinus, were condemned to the the 9th Circle because of their act against Julius Caesar, despite the fact that Dante was also a member of the Assassin Order.
 * Concerning the above: Dante's Inferno was an actual book; in other words, in reality there was no Assassin Order (at least not like in these games), thus Dante was not part of such an organization.