Portia to Volumnius<hr>
<hr>
In vain, Volumnius, my parents have chosen you to try to persuade me to continue living after the loss I have suffered. It is unlikely that the philosophy which guided my father Cato's sword and later passed it to my dear Brutus could convince me that the preservation of my life is just or even possible. No, Volumnius, in the state I am in, I can no longer live and no longer need to. You know that this philosophy you use against me is not foreign to me and that the honorable Cato, my father, taught it to me carefully. So don't believe that the decision I am making is the result of a mind blinded by its own pain and desperate despair. I have been thinking about it for a long time, and amid unsure things, I have made the resolution that I will carry out today. Anyone but me could perhaps honor her husband's ashes by shedding tears until the end of her days, but the daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus must act differently. I am convinced I have a soul too distinguished to lead a life unworthy of my ancestors and the honor of having had as father and husband two of the most famous Romans in history. For those who live today are no longer true Romans, they are the remains of Julius Caesar's slaves, or rather they are enraged tigers tearing the breast of their mother by devastating their homeland.<hr>
Alas! Who could have believed that the Roman people would become the enemy of their own freedom, that they would forge the chains that bind them themselves, that they would put on the throne the very man who killed millions to get there? But also that he would be capable of lamenting the death of a tyrant, deifying him and pursuing a man who risked his life to restore his freedom and who even despised Caesar's friendship as a criminal! For Brutus could have obtained much more if he had agreed to submit to servitude. His chains would undoubtedly have been lighter than those of other citizens, and with a little prudence, he could have been the advisor to the man who ruled the world. But Brutus was too generous to base his own well-being on the ruins of the Republic. He knew that duty must prevail over everything else, that he owed Caesar nothing. Being born a Roman citizen, he had to hate the tyrant, and to avoid being ungrateful to his country, he had to be to Caesar. Being descended from the lineage of the first Brutus, he had to bring his aid and value to the oppressed Republic. However, after accomplishing all these things, this cowardly and senseless people exile the one for whom they should have erected statues in all public squares. This extreme ingratitude however did not shake Brutus's honor. You know it, Volumnius, everything he did for the country, I am not telling you to tell it, but to use the little life that remains in me to talk about his great achievements and to ask you to make them known to posterity. Therefore remember, Volumnius, that even if all the Romans have shown ingratitude to him, he has never stopped doing everything for them. And when these cowards tolerated not one, but several despots, Brutus, thought only of their welfare.<hr>
<hr>
                                                     52<hr>