Porcia (sister of Cato the Younger)

For the wife of Marcus Junius Brutus, see Porcia Catonis.

Porcia, also known as Porcia Catonis or Porcia the Elder (before 95 BC 46/45 BC) was the daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Salonianus and Livia Drusa. She was the elder sister of Cato the Younger and the younger half-sister of Servilia Caepionis, the younger Servilia and Quintus Servilius Caepio. She was the aunt of Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the more famous of Julius Caesar's assassins. She was also the aunt of Porcia Catonis and Junia Tertia. After her parents died, she lived with all her siblings in the household of their uncle Marcus Livius Drusus until his assassination in 91 BC.

She married Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was consul in 54 BC and an ally of her brother Cato. Marcus Tullius Cicero claims that Porcia and her husband were in Naples in 49 BC, when her husband was besieged at Corfinium by Julius Caesar.[1] In 48 BC, Porcia lost her husband in the Battle of Pharsalus. Porcia died towards the end of 46 BC to the beginning of 45 BC, her funeral elegy was pronounced by Cicero, who greatly commended her virtues.[2]

Notes

  1. Cic., ad Att. IX 3.
  2. Plut., Cat. 1, 41; Cic., ad Att. XIII 37, 48.
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