Note 68 — BOOK II.

Animo patris, the strength of his mind, though that of a father, being even more conspicuous, &c. So Drakenborch understands the passage,—this sternness of mind, he says, though he was their father, was a more remarkable spectacle than his stern countenance. This character of Brutus, as inferrible from the words thus interpreted, coincides with that given of him by Dionysius and others. I prefer understanding the passage with Crevier, scil. symptoms of paternal affection to his children displaying themselves during the discharge of his duty in superintending the public punishment inflicted on them.