A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

4. L.JuniusBrutus, one of the leaders of the plebeians in their secession to the Sacred Mount, B. C. 494, is represented by Dionysius as a plebeian, who took the surname of Brutus, that his name might be exactly the same as the first consul's. He was, according to the same authority, chosen one of the first tribunes of the plebs in this year, and also plebeian aedile in the year that Coriolanus was brought to trial. (Dionys. A. R. 6.70, &c., 87-89, 7.14, 26.) This Brutus is not mentioned by any ancient writer except Dionysius, and Plutarch (Plut. Cor. 7) who copies from him. The old reading in Asconius (in Cornel. p. 76, ed. Orelli) made L. Junius C. F. Paterculus one of the first tribunes; but Junius was an alteration made by Manutius, and Paterculus nowhere occurs as a cognomen of the Junia gens: the true reading is Albinius. [ALBINIUS.] Niebuhr supposes (i. p. 617) that this L. Junius Brutus of Dionysius is an entirely fictitious person.