Portia ( – June 43 BC),Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 53.5. occasionally spelled Porcia, especially in 18th-century English literature,Spelled Portia in Lempriere's Classical Dictionary (19th century) was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (Cato the Younger) and his first wife Atilia. She is best known for being the second wife of Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of Julius Caesar's assassins, and appears primarily in the letters of Cicero.
Biography
Early life
Porcia was born around 73 BC.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 7.3.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 7.4Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 24.3 She had an affectionate nature,Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 13.4. Porcia, being of an affectionate nature... and full of sensible pride. was interested in philosophy, and was "full of an understanding courage."Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 13.4. Plutarch describes her as being prime of youth and beauty.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 25.3. When she was still very young, her father divorced her mother for adultery.
At a young age she was married first to Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, her father's political ally, who was 29 years older than her, between 58 BC and 53 BC. Porcia's father was a member of the Roman Optimate faction, and adamantly opposed Julius Caesar. Porcia embraced these ideals, and did not outwardly object to the arranged marriage. With Bibulus she had two children, at least one of them a son. Lucius Calpurnius Bibulus (born around 59 BC) was possibly one of them, although most modern historians believe Porcia was too young to have mothered Lucius, and that he was Bibulus' son by his previous marriage, as he was old enough to fight in the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC.Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 13.3. He died in 32 BC. It is possible that a son of Porcia and Bibulus was the man who wrote the biography of Brutus.
A few years later, the elderly but renowned Roman orator Quintus Hortensius applied to Cato for Porcia's hand in marriage. According to Plutarch, this was because he wished to be more closely allied with Cato's family.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 25.2. Hortensius suggested that, if Bibulus was very attached to Porcia, he could still marry her but then return her to Bibulus once she had given birth to a male heir. He argued that, although human customs might disapprove of such an arrangement, it was against natural law to keep a girl of Porcia's youth and beauty from producing children for her father's allies and impractical for her to overproduce for Bibulus.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 25.3. "According to the opinion of men, he argued, such a course was absurd, but according to the law of nature it was honourable and good for the state that a woman in the prime of youth and beauty should neither quench her productive power and lie idle, nor yet, by bearing more offspring than enough, burden and impoverish a husband who does not want them." Nonetheless, Cato refused to break up Porcia's marriage with Bibulus.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 25.3 Instead, Cato divorced his wife, Porcia's stepmother Marcia, and gave her to Hortensius; he remarried her after Hortensius died.
In 52 BC, Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars came to an end, but he refused to return to Rome, despite the Senate's demands that he lay down his arms. Cato personally detested Caesar, and was his greatest enemy in the Senate; Cato's political faction, the Optimates (also known as the Boni), believed that Caesar should return to Rome, in order for the Optimates to strip him of his property and dignitas, and permanently exile Caesar. In 49 BC, Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his army, thus declaring war, beginning the Great Roman Civil War. Both Cato and Bibulus allied with Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus against Caesar. Though both Boni hated Pompey, he did not pose the threat to their faction that Caesar did. Bibulus commanded Pompey's navy in the Adriatic Sea.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 54.4. He captured a part of Caesar's fleet, although this was generally insignificant as Caesar went on to decisively defeat Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus. Bibulus died in 48 BC from influenza following Pompey's defeat, leaving Porcia a widow.
In 46 BC, Cato committed suicide following his defeat in the battle of Thapsus while Marcus Cato, Porcia's brother, was pardoned by Caesar and returned to Rome.Appian, The Civil Wars, Book II, 100.
Marriage to Brutus Brutus, Porcia's first cousin, divorced his wife Claudia and married Porcia (who was 12 years younger) in 45 BC.Cicero, Brutus, 77. 94 The marriage was scandalous as Brutus did not state any reasons for divorce despite having been married to Claudia for many years. Claudia was very popular for being a woman of great virtue, and was the daughter of Appius Claudius Pulcher, who had been Brutus's ally for many years.Cicero, Atticus, 13. 16 She was also related to Pompey by marriage through her younger sister. The divorce was not well received by some, including Brutus's mother, Servilia,Cicero, Atticus, 13. 10 who despised her half-brother Cato, and appears to have been jealous of Brutus's affection for Porcia.Cicero, Atticus, 13. 22 Therefore, Servilia supported Claudia's interests against those of Porcia.Middleton, Conyers. History of the Life of Marcus Tullus Cicero, The. p 208
On the other hand, Porcia was highly favoured with the followers of both Pompey and Cato, so the marriage was favoured by people such as Marcus Tullius Cicero and Titus Pomponius Atticus.Cicero, Atticus, 13. 9 The marriage was Brutus's way of honouring his uncle. Nonetheless, it appears that Porcia deeply loved Brutus and was utterly devoted to him. She resolved not to inquire into Brutus's secrets before she had made a trial of herself and that she would bid defiance to pain.
Brutus, along with many other co-conspirators, murdered Caesar in 44 BC.Cassius Dio, 44.13.1. He promised to share the "heavy secrets" of his heart with his wife but it is unclear if he ever got the chance.Cassius Dio, 44.13.Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 14.4 Some historians believe Porcia may have known about the plot, and may have even been involved in the conspiracy itself.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 73.4. Plutarch claims that she happened upon Brutus while he was pondering over what to do about Caesar and asked him what was wrong. When he did not answer, she suspected that he distrusted her on account of her being a woman, for fear she might reveal something, however unwillingly, under torture. In order to prove herself to him, she secretly inflicted a wound upon her own thigh with a barber's knife to see if she could endure the pain. As a result of the wound, she suffered from violent pains, chills and fever.Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 13.5 Some believe that she endured the pain of her untreated wound for at least a day. As soon as she overcame her pain, she returned to Brutus and said:
Brutus marveled when he saw the gash on her thigh and after hearing this he no longer hid anything from her, but felt strengthened himself and promised to relate the whole plot.Cassius Dio, 44.14.1 Lifting his hands above him, he is said to have prayed that he might succeed in his undertaking and thus show himself a worthy husband.Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 13.11. Yet Brutus never got the chance as they were interrupted and never had a moment's privacy before the conspiracy was carried out. On the day of Caesar's assassination, Porcia was extremely disturbed with anxiety and sent messengers to the Senate to check that Brutus was still alive.Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 15.6. She worked herself up to the point whereupon her fainting, her maids feared that she was dying.
When Brutus and the other assassins fled Rome to Athens, it was agreed that Porcia should stay in Italy.Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 23.2. Porcia was overcome with grief to part from Brutus, but tried hard to conceal it. When she came across a painting depicting the parting of Hector from Andromache in the Iliad, however, she burst into tears, feeling it reflected her own sorrow. She would go on to visit this painting multiple times per day.Plutarch, Marcus Brutus, 23.4. Brutus' friend Acilius heard of this, and quoted Homer where Andromache speaks to Hector:
Brutus smiled, saying he would never say to Porcia what Hector said to Andromache in return (Ply loom and distaff and give orders to thy maids), saying of Porcia:
Death The claim that Porcia's death occurred before that of Brutus is backed up by a letter sent by Cicero. This letter would have been sent in late June or early July 43 BC, before either battle of Philippi.Cicero, Ad Brutum, 1.9.2. It further suggests that Porcia did not commit suicide, but died of some lingering illness. As Plutarch states, if the letter was genuine Brutus lamented her death and blamed their friends for not looking after her. There is also an earlier letter from Brutus to Atticus, which hints at Porcia's illness and compliments him for taking care of her.Ad Brut., 17, Valetudinem Porcia meæ tibi curæ esse, non minorHistory of the Life of Marcus Tullus Cicero, The. Middleton, Conyers. p 278 Cicero later wrote his surviving letter to Brutus, consoling him in his grief, calling Porcia "one such as never before has been in the world."Cicero, Ad Brutum, 1.9, saying "You have suffered indeed a great loss (for you have lost that which had not left its fellow on earth), and must be allowed to grieve under so cruel a blow, lest to want all sense of grief should be thought more wretched than grief itself: but do it with moderation, is both useful to others and necessary to yourself." This is probably the most accurateCicero, Ad Brutum, 1.9.2 includes a contemporary letter, which Cicero sent to Brutus, consoling him over Porcia's death. As this is addressed to her husband it is fair to assume this is one of the more accurate accounts of Porcia Catonis' death. account of Porcia's death.
Porcia's death has been a fixation for many historians and writers. It was believed by a majority of contemporary historians that Porcia committed suicide in 42 BC, reputedly by swallowing hot coals. Modern historians find this tale implausible, however, and one popular speculation has Porcia taking her life by burning charcoal in an unventilated room, thus succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning."Roman Life in the Days of Cicero", Alfred J. Church