memorable deed. He was known,
indeed, as a young man of promise, with whose education special pains
had been taken, and who had a genuine love for letters and learning. He
was free, it would seem, from some of the vices of his age, but he had
serious faults. Indeed the one transaction of his earlier life with
which we happen to be well acquainted is very little to his credit. And
this, again, is so characteristic of one side of Roman life that it
should be told in some detail.

Brutus had married the daughter of a certain Appius Claudius, a kinsman
of the notorious Clodius, and had accompanied his father-in-law to his
province, Cilicia. He took the opportunity of increasing his means by
lending money to the provincials. Lending money, it must be remembered,
was not thought a discreditable occupation even for the very noblest. To
lend money upon interest was, indeed, the only way of making an
investment, besides the buying of land, that was available to the Roman
capitalist. But Brutus was more than a money-lender, he was an usurer;
that is, he sought to extract an extravagantly high rate of interest
from his debtors. And this greed brought him into collision with Cicero.

A certain Scaptius had been agent for Brutus in lending money to the
town of Salamis in Cyprus. Under the government of Claudius, Scaptius
had had every thing his own way. He had been appointed to a command in
the town, had some cavalry at his disposal, and extorted from the
inhabitants what terms he pleased, shutting up, it is told us, the
Senate in their council-room till five of them perished of hunger.
Cicero heard of this monstrous deed as he was on his way to his
province; he peremptorily refused the request of Scaptius for a renewal
of his command, saying that he had resolved not to grant such posts to
any person engaged in trading or money-lending. Still, for Brutus'
sake--and it was not for some time that it came out that Brutus was the
principal--he would take care that the money should be paid. This the
town was ready to do; but then came in the question of interest. An
edict had been published that this should never exceed twelve per cent.,
or one per cent, monthly, that being the customary way of payment. But
Scaptius pleaded his bond, which provided for four per cent, monthly,
and pleaded also a special edict that regulations restraining interest
were not to apply to Salamis. The town protested that they could not
pay if such terms were