Brutus

When Cassius and Labeo discussed the matter with him, he would make no answer; but he had a private interview by himself with Brutus, and on learning that he was leader of the enterprise, readily agreed to co-operate.

The most and best of the rest also were won over by the reputation in which Brutus stood.

And although they exchanged neither oaths nor sacred pledges, they all kept the undertaking so much to themselves and were so secret in carrying it out together that, although it was foretold by the gods in prophecies and oracles and sacrificial omens,[*](Cf. Caesar, chapter lxiii. ) no one would believe in it.

Now Brutus, since he had made the foremost men of Rome for dignity, family, and virtue, dependent on himself, and since he understood all the danger involved, in public tried to keep his thoughts to himself and under control;

but at home, and at night, he was not the same man. Sometimes, in spite of himself, his anxious thoughts would rouse him out of sleep, and sometimes, when he was more than ever immersed in calculation and beset with perplexities, his wife, who slept by his side, perceived that he was full of unwonted trouble, and was revolving in his mind some difficult and complicated plan.

Porcia, as has been said, was a daughter of Cato, and when Brutus, who was her cousin, took her to wife, she was not a virgin; she was, however, still very young, and had by her deceased husband[*](Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, colleague of Caesar in the consulship of 59 B.C.) a little son whose name was Bibulus. A small book containing memoirs of Brutus was written by him, and is still extant.

Porcia, being of an affectionate nature, fond of her husband, and full of sensible pride, did not try to question her husband about his secrets until she had put herself to the following test.