in contrast, the roman story of brutus focuses on feigned madness. its hero, lucius ('shining, light'), changes his name and persona to brutus ('dull, stupid'), playing the role to avoid the fate of his father and brothers, and eventually slaying his family's killer, king tarquinius. in addition to writing in the latin language of the romans, saxo adjusted the story to reflect classical roman concepts of virtue and heroism. a reasonably accurate version of saxo's story was translated into french in 1570 by françois de belleforest in his "histoires tragiques". belleforest embellished saxo's text substantially, almost doubling its length, and introduced the hero's melancholy.