Portia to Volumnius<hr>
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       In vain, Volumnius, have my parents chosen you to try and persuade me to<hr>
stay alive after the loss I have suffered. It is hardly credible that the philosophy that guided the sword<hr>
of my father Cato, and which he then passed on to my dear Brutus, could make me believe that the<hr>
preservation of my life is fair, or even possible. No, Volumnius, in the state I am in, I can no longer<hr>
live, and I am under no obligation to do so. You know that this philosophy<hr>
you use against me is not foreign to me, and that the honorable Cato, my father, painstakingly<hr>
taught it to me. Therefore, do not imagine that the decision I am taking is the product of a mind<hr>
blinded by its own pain and irrational despair. I have been pondering it for a long time, and in the uncertainty of things, I have made up my mind to carry it out today. Anyone other<hr>
than I could perhaps honour her husband's ashes by shedding tears until the end of her days, but the daughter of Cato and the wife of Brutus must act differently. I am<hr>
convinced that my soul is too noble to lead a life unworthy of my ancestors and the honour of having had a father and husband who are two of the most well-known Romans in history. For<hr>
those who live today are no longer real Romans, they are the remnants of the slaves<hr>
of Julius Caesar, or rather they are enraged tigers tearing up the motherland.
       Alas! Who could believe that the Roman people would become the enemy of its own liberty, that it would forge its own chains, place on the throne the very one who caused the death of millions of men to get there? But also that it would be capable of mourning the death of a tyrant, to deify him, and to pursue as a criminal a man<hr>
who risked his life to return their freedom, even scorning the friendship of Caesar! For Brutus could have gained much more had he chosen to submit to servitude. His chains would no doubt have been lighter than the other citizens', and with a little caution, he could have been the counsellor of the master of the world. But Brutus was too generous to base his own welfare on the ruins of the Republic. He knew that duty prevails over everything else, that he owed nothing to Caesar, being a Roman citizen, he must hate the tyrant and to avoid being ungrateful to his country, he had to be so to Caesar. Being from the lineage of the first Brutus, he had to bring his support and courage to the oppressed Republic.
However, after having done all these things, this cowardly and senseless people exiled the one for whom they should have erected statues in all public places. This extreme ingratitude, however, did not shake Brutus' honor. You know, Volumnius, all he did for the homeland, I don't tell you to teach you, but to use the little life I have left to talk about his great deeds and to ask you to make them known to posterity.<hr>
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                                                     53<hr>