Portia, the daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus, was remarkable for her prudence, philosophy, and domestic virtues. She wounded herself severely, and endured the pain in silence, to convince her husband that she had sufficient courage to be intrusted with his most dangerous secrets. Brutus admired her fortitude, and no longer concealed from her his intended conspiracy against Cæsar. On the day when she knew the assassination was to take place, she fainted away with excess of anxiety; but she faithfully kept the secret that had been intrusted to her. When she parted from Brutus, after the death of Cæsar, a picture of Hector and Andromache, that was hanging on the wall, brought tears to her eyes. A friend of Brutus, who was present, repeated the address of the Trojan princess: “Be careful, Hector! for with thee my _all_, My father, mother, brother, husband, fall.” Brutus replied, smiling, “I must not answer Portia in the words of Hector, ‘Mind your wheel, and to your maids give law;’ for in courage, activity, and concern for her country’s freedom, she is inferior to none of us; though the weakness of her frame does not always second the strength of her mind.” A false rumor having prevailed that Brutus was dead, Portia resolved not to survive him. Her friends, aware of her purpose, placed every weapon beyond her reach; but she defeated their kindness by swallowing burning coals. The emperor Augustus is said to have seldom worn any domestic robes that were not woven by his wife, his sister, his daughters, or his nieces. His sister Octavia was celebrated for her beauty and her virtues. When her husband, Mark Antony, deserted her for the sake of Cleopatra, she went to Athens to meet him, in hopes of withdrawing him from this disgraceful amour; but she was secretly rebuked, and entirely banished from his presence. Augustus highly resented this affront to a beloved sister, but she gently endeavored to pacify him, and made all possible excuses for Antony. When she heard of her husband’s death, she took all his children into her house, and treated them with the utmost tenderness. She gave Virgil ten thousand sesterces for every line of his encomium upon her excellent and darling son Marcellus. The poet was requested to repeat these verses in the presence of Augustus and his sister. Octavia burst into tears as soon as he began; but when he mentioned _Tu Marcellus eris_, she swooned away. She was supposed to have died of melancholy, occasioned by her son’s death. Augustus himself pronounced her funeral oration, and the Roman people evinced their respect for her character by wishing to pay her divine honors.