Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/369

 MARCUS BRUTUS. 3G1 Actium, being one of the Greeks that proved their bravery in his service. It is reported of Messala himself, that, when Csesar once gave him this commendation, that though he was his fiercest enemy at Phihppi in the cause of Brutus, yet he had shown himself his most entire fi'iend in the fight of Actium, he answered, " You have always found me, Cjesar, on the best and justest side." Brutus's dead body was found by Antony, who com- manded the richest purple mantle that he had to be thrown over it, and afterwards the mantle being stolen, he found the thief, and had him put to death. He sent the ashes of Brutus to his mother Servilia. As for Porcia his wife, Nicolaus the philosopher and Valerius Maximus write, that, being deshous to die, but being hindered by her friends, who continually watched her, she snatched some burning charcoal out of the fire, and, shutting it close in her mouth, stifled herself, and died. Though there is a letter current from Brutus to Ids friends, in which he laments the death of Porcia, and accuses them for neglecting her so that she desired to die rather than languish with her disease. So that it seems Nicolaus was mistaken in the time; for this epistle (if it indeed is authentic, and truly Brutus's) gives us to understand the malady and love of Porcia, and the way in which her death occurred.