The Trojan Kings of Britain: Myth or History?

 From The Greek Reporter:

Based on the fact that Brutus supposedly lived only a few generations after Aeneas, this would apparently place him around 1100 BCE. Modern sources regularly claim Brutus does not appear in any record prior to the Historia Brittonum, making it obvious that he is fictional.

However, there are some issues with this conclusion. As The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights, the Historia Brittonum actually calls Brutus a Roman consul. In fact, it describes him directly as the “first to hold the consulship.” This would identify him as Lucius Junius Brutus, a figure who appears in many ancient Roman records.

Confirming this is the fact that the Historia Brittonum provides an alternative genealogy for Brutus. This alternative tradition places Brutus several generations after Numa Pompilius, a king who likely lived in the seventh century BCE.

What this means is that the Brutus who appears in the Historia Brittonum was not invented by the writer of that document. Rather, he is simply a distorted version of the historical Lucius Junius Brutus. This Brutus really was the first to hold the consulship, and he really did live a few generations after Numa Pompilius.

This would mean that the supposedly fictional Brutus of Troy was not fictional at all. He really existed, and, in fact, he is very well attested to in the ancient Roman sources. He lived in the second half of the sixth century BCE.

How does this harmonise with the tradition that Brutus lived just a few generations after Aeneas? The book The Trojan Kings of Britain points out that many genealogies in medieval British documents are demonstrably abbreviated. Therefore, there is no reason why this could not also be the case with Brutus.

More significantly, however, the book highlights how modern research and discoveries support the conclusion that the Trojan War occurred centuries after the traditional date. In fact, the earliest records on the founding of Rome actually place Aeneas just a few generations before Lucius Junius Brutus, too. (Read more.)