A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Portia
PORTIA,
Daughter of the celebrated Cato of Utica, was married first to Bibulus, by whom she had two children. Becoming a widow, she married her cousin Marcus Brutus. When Brutus was engaged in the conspiracy against Caesar, he attempted, but in vain, to conceal the agitation of his mind from his wife, who did not venture to urge him to let her share in the secret, till she had given decisive proof of her strength of mind. She accordingly gave herself a deep wound in the thigh, and then, when pain and loss of blood had confined her to her bed, she represented to Brutus, that the daughter of Cato, and his wife, might hope to be considered as something more than a mere female companion. She then showed him her wound, and Brutus, after imploring the gods that he might live to prove himself worthy a wife like Portia, informed her of the conspiracy.
When the important day arrived, March 15, B.C. 44, she sent messenger after messenger to bring her word what Brutus was doing, and at length fainted away, so that a report reached her husband that she was dead.
Brutus perceiving that he had not accomplished his object by the assassination of Caesar, left Rome for Athens. Portia accompanied him to the shore and then left him, as he thought it necessary that she should return to Rome.
After the death of Brutus, Portia resolved not to survive him, and being closely watched by her friends, snatched burning coals from the fire, and thrusting them in her mouth, held them there till she was suffocated, B.C. 42.