And thou too oh Brutus - И ты, Брут?
The words Et tu, Brute? (And thou too oh Brutus)
are from Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar, and are
addressed by the dying Caesar to Brutus, who joined
the conspirators to murder him. Brutus was a Roman
political leader. He had fought with Pompey against
Caesar; after Pompey’s defeat, Brutus surrendered to
Caesar, who freely pardoned him. He first served under
Caesar in Gaul, and afterwards commanded his fleet.
Caesar, who esteemed him very highly, made him governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and, in case of O ctavian’s
death, nominated him as one of the heirs (Octavian
was the name of C aesar’s adopted son).
After Caesar had got rid of his political rivals, Pompey and Crassus, all political power in the state little
by little fell into his hands. Although he did not actu*
ally proclaim himself king, such was his power that it
was considered a probability. A group of republican senators made up their minds to kill Caesar and thus
prevent him from replacing the constitutional republic
by a monarchy. Brutus, a staunch republican, was
am ong the conspirators who on the I of March,
44 В. С stabbed C aesar to death in the Senate.
The words El tu, Brute? have become proverbial and
are used with reference to an unexpected betrayal of
a close friend of very high moral standing.
Вы, конечно, знаете, кому принадлежат слова И ты,
Брут?
These were the words of the dying Cae*
sar, were they not?
А Вы можете сказать, почему умирающий Цезарь
произнес их?
I believe Brutus used to be his friend.
And it came as a shock to Caesar to see him
among the conspirators.
Мне кажется, Брут и Юлий Цезарь не всегда были
единомышленниками. Разве вы не помните, что Брут
выступал против Цезаря на стороне Помпея?
Pompey? But I think at one time Pompey
sided with Caesar.
A . .. вы имеете в виду триумвират.
Yes, something like that. Triumvirate.
I think that's the word. You know, I never
cared much for history. To tell the truth,
I had no end of trouble with the subject when
I went to school.
А я думал, вы интересуетесь древней историей.
No, I am the w rong person for you ...
H ere’s John Gable. He’s just what we call
historical-minded.