Portia catonis biography of michael

Porcia Catonis (or Porcia “of Cato”), was the daughter of the renowned Roman Stoic philosopher Cato the Younger—an enemy of the dictator Julius Caesar—and his first wife, Atilia. She was known for her beauty and bold personality, as well as for her marriage (her second) to Marcus Junius Brutus, who famously took part in the assassination of Julius Caesar.

She was born between 73 BCE and 64 BCE and died by either suicide or illness around 42 BCE. Accounts of her possible suicide claim she killed herself by swallowing hot coals, but overall the circumstances of her death are still disputed.

Porcia of Cato was written about by Plutarch, a Greek essayist and biographer who later became a Roman citizen, and others, and has been portrayed many times in popular culture such as in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, in books like The Ides of March, and in TV and movies adapting Shakespeare’s work.

Much of her life was only documented in relation to Cato and Brutus, but within those