Note 1183 — Chapter IV · PRE-IMPERIAL CAREER OF THEODORA: THE CONSORT OF JUSTINIAN
Reading edition
Portia, daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus, the assassin of Caesar, aspired to be the confidante of her husband, but, distrusting her feminine nature, she refrained from soliciting him to trust her, until, by stabbing herself in the thigh, she felt satisfied of possessing sufficient masculine strength of mind to become the repository of state secrets (44 B.C.); Plutarch, Brutus, etc. See Shakespeare’s delineation of her in Julius Caesar, where she recounts her action to Brutus.