her story, his authority seeming to be a little biography which
one of her sons by her first husband afterwards wrote of his
step-father. "She wounded herself in the thigh with a knife such as
barbers use for cutting the nails. The wound was deep, the loss of blood
great, and the pain and fever that followed acute. Her husband was in
the greatest distress, when his wife thus addressed him: 'Brutus, it was
a daughter of Cato who became your wife, not merely to share your bed
and board, but to be the partner of your adversity and your prosperity.
_You_ give me no cause to complain, but what proof can I give you of my
affection if I may not bear with you your secret troubles. Women, I
know, are weak creatures, ill fitted to keep secrets. Yet a good
training and honest company may do much, and this, as Cato's daughter
and wife to Brutus, I have had.' She then showed him the wound, and told
him that she had inflicted it upon herself to prove her courage and
constancy." For all this resolution she had something of a woman's
weakness. When her husband had left the house on the day fixed for the
assassination, she could not conceal her agitation. She eagerly inquired
of all who entered how Brutus fared, and at last fainted in the hall of
her house. In the midst of the business of the senate-house Brutus heard
that his wife was dying.

Porcia was not with her husband during the campaigns that ended at
Philippi, but remained in Rome. She is said to have killed herself by
swallowing the live coals from a brazier, when her friends kept from her
all the means of self-destruction. This story is scarcely credible;
possibly it means that she suffocated herself with the fumes of
charcoal. That she should commit suicide suited all the traditions of
her life.

CHAPTER XIII.

A GOVERNOR IN HIS PROVINCE.

It was usual for a Roman statesman, after filling the office of praetor
or consul, to undertake for a year or more the government of one of the
provinces. These appointments were indeed the prizes of the profession
of politics. The new governor had a magnificent outfit from the
treasury. We hear of as much as one hundred and fifty thousand pounds
having been allowed for this purpose. Out of this something might easily
be economized. Indeed we hear of one governor who left the whole of his
allowance put out at interest in Rome. And in the province itself
splendid gains might be, and indeed commonly were, got. Even Cicero,
who,