A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Porcia
PORCIA, Daughter of Cato of Utica,
Applied herself very much to the study of philosophy, and gave strong proofs of an exalted courage; for guessing that Brutus, her husband, was preparing for some grand enterprize, she cut herself with a knife, to try, by her constancy and patience in suffering pain, whether she could keep a secret. At which Brutus being astonished, lifted up his hands to heaven, and begged the assistance of the gods, that he might live to be a husband worthy of such a wife as Porcia: so he communicated to her the preparations that were making to kill Cæsar. But on the day on which the design was executed, the uneasiness of her mind was so great that it threw her into fainting fits; afterwards, having accompanied him to the sea-shore with the greatest fortitude, she could not forbear shedding tears at the sight of a picture, representing the parting of Hector and Andromache. When she heard that Brutus had killed himself, she followed his example, and died by her own hands, not by a sword, but by swallowing burning coals. When she married Brutus, she was the relict of Bibulus, by whom she had children.