Porcia

1. The sister of Cato Uticensis, was brought up with her brother in the house of their uncle M. Livius Drusus, as they lost their parents in childhood. She married L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was consul in B. C. 54, and, like her brother, one of the leaders of the aristocratical party. We learn from Cicero that she was at Naples in B. C. 49, when her husband was besieged at Corfinium by Caesar. (Cic. Att. 9.3.) In the following year, B. C. 48, she lost her husband, who fell in the battle of Pharsalia. She herself died towards the end of B. C. 46, or the beginning of the next year, and her funeral panegyric was pronounced by Cicero, and likewise by M. Varro and Lollius. (Plut. Cat. 1, 41; Cic. Att. 13.37, 48.)

2. The daughter of Cato Uticensis by his first wife Atilia. She was married first to M. Bibulus, who was Caesar's colleague in the consulship B. C. 59, and to whom she bore three children. Bibulus died in B. C. 48; and in B. C. 45 she married M. Brutus, the assassin of Julius Caesar. She inherited all her father's republican principles, and likewise his courage and firmness of will. She induced her husband on the night before the 15th of March to disclose to her the conspiracy against Caesar's life, and she is reported to have wounded herself in the thigh in order to show that she had a courageous soul and could be trusted with the secret. At the same time her affection for her husband was stronger than her stoicism, and on the morning of the 15th, her anxiety for his safety was so great that she fainted away, and word was brought to Brutus in the senate-house that his wife was dying. She parted with Brutus at Velia in Lucania in the course of the same year, when he embarked for Greece. She then returned to Rome, where she continued to live unmolested by the triumvirs. But after she learnt the loss of the battle of Philippi and the death of Brutus in B. C. 42, she resolved not to survive the ruin of her party and the death of her husband, and accordingly put an end to her own life. The common tale was, that her friends, suspecting her design, had taken all weapons out of her way, and that she therefore destroyed herself by swallowing live coals. The real fact may have been that she suffocated herself by the vapour of a charcoal fire, which we know was a frequent means of self-destruction among the Romans. (Plut. Cat. 25, 73, Brut. 2, 13, 15, 23, 33; D. C. 44.13, 47.49; Appian, App. BC 4.136 ; V. Max. 3.2.5, 4.6.5; Polyaen. 8.32; Martial, 1.43.)

3. The daughter of Cato Uticensis by his second wife Marcia. She remained with her mother in Rome when her father left the city in B. C. 49 on Caesar's approach. (Plut. Cat. 52.) She probably died young.

plebeian, is not mentioned till the middle of the third century before the Christian aera; and the first member of the gens, who obtained the consulship, was the celebrated M. Porcius Cato, in B. C. 195. The name was derived by the Romans from porcus, a pig, and was compared with Ovinius, Caprilius, and Taurus, all of which names indicated connection with the breeding or feeding of cattle. (Plut. Publ. 11 ; Varr. de R. R. 2.1.) The Porcii were divided into three families under the republic, namely, those of Laeca, Licinus, and Cato, all of which names appear on coins. In the imperial period we find two or three other cognomens, which are given below.

(1) The sister of Cato Uticensis, married L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul B.C. 54, who was slain in the battle of Pharsalia. She died in 46.

(2) The daughter of Cato Uticensis by his first wife Atilia. She was married first to M. Bibulus, consul B.C. 59, to whom she bore three children. Bibulus died in 48; and in 45 she married M. Brutus, the assassin of Iulius Caesar. She inherited all her father's republican principles, and likewise his courage and firmness of will. She induced her husband, on the night before the fifteenth of March, to disclose to her the conspiracy against Caesar's life, and she is reported to have wounded herself in the thigh in order to show that she had a courageous soul, and could be trusted with the secret. She put an end to her own life after the death of Brutus in 42. The common tale was, that her friends, suspecting her design, had taken all weapons out of her way, and that she therefore destroyed herself by swallowing live coals (Plut. Brut. 53). The real fact may have been that she suffocated herself by the vapour of a charcoal fire, which, as we know, was a frequent means of selfdestruction among the Romans.