Brutus

Thus, then, did Brutus express himself in his first letters to Cicero. But already one faction was forming about Octavius, and another about Antony, and the soldiers, as though for sale at auction, flocked to the highest bidder. Altogether despairing, therefore, of the state, Brutus determined to abandon Italy, and came by land through Lucania to Elea by the sea.

As Porcia was about to return thence to Rome, she tried to conceal her distress, but a certain painting betrayed her, in spite of her noble spirit hitherto.

Its subject was Greek, —Andromache bidding farewell to Hector; she was taking from his arms their little son, while her eyes were fixed upon her husband.

When Porcia saw this, the image of her own sorrow presented by it caused her to burst into tears, and she would visit it many times a day and weep before it.

And when Acilius, one of the friends of Brutus, recited the verses containing Andromache’s words to Hector,

1. But, Hector, thou to me art father and honoured mother
2. And brother; my tender husband, too, art thou,

Brutus smiled and said: But I, certainly, have no mind to address Porcia in the words of Hector,

Ply loom and distaff and give orders to thy maids,