Porcia Catonis (70 BC-June 43 BC) was the wife of Marcus Junius Brutus. She famously committed suicide by swallowing hot coals due to her impatience with her husband's absence following his assassination of Julius Caesar.
Biography[]
Porcia Catonis was the eldest daughter of Cato the Younger, and she was married to Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus before remarrying to Marcus Junius Brutus. She was known to be addicted to philosophy, and she was proud to be smarter than most women of her time. In 44 BC, Brutus took part in a plot to assassinate Julius Caesar, and Porcia suspected that her husband was up to something. When she asked her husband what he was thinking, he refused to tell her about the plot, lest she be tortured by Brutus' enemies into revealing the plot to them. However, Porcia proved her strength by cutting her own thigh, and Brutus no longer hid anything from her. Following Caesar's assassination, Brutus and the other assassins fled to Greece, while Porcia remained in Rome. Impatient of Brutus' absence and grieving that Octavian and Mark Antony were becoming strong, she swallowed hot coals while her attendants were away, committing suicide.
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