PORCIA, wife of Marcus Brutus, fl. first century B.C., was the daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis. While Brutus was in the East fighting against Caesar and Antony, she committed suicide by inhaling the fumes of a live charcoal rather than suffer from a disease she had contracted (Plutarch, Life of Brutus). Valerius Maximus (Factorum dictorumque memorabilium IV.vi.5: De amore conjugali) perpetuated the later tradition that she died in 42 B.C. after she learned of Brutus's death. Jerome says that she did not wish to live without him, Epistola adversus Jovinianum (Letter Against Jovinian) I.47 and 49 (PL 23: 276, 282).
Porcia is one of Dorigen's exemplary wives, FranklT 1448-1450. [Brutus2: Catoun2: Dorigen]
Porcia, the Latin feminine form of Porcius, the name of the clan to which the family belonged, occurs medially, FranklT 1448.