instead travelling to Cilicia as legate for Publius Sestius before joining Pompey in winter 49 or spring 48. It is not known whether Brutus fought in the ensuing battles at Dyrrhachium and Pharsalus. Plutarch says that Caesar ordered his officers to take Brutus prisoner if he gave himself up voluntarily, but to leave him alone and do him no harm if he persisted in fighting against capture. After the massive Pompeian defeat at Pharsalus on 9 August 48, Brutus fled through marshland to Larissa, where he wrote to Caesar, who welcomed him graciously into his camp. Plutarch also implies that Brutus told Caesar of Pompey's withdrawal plans to Egypt, but this is unlikely, as Brutus was not present when Pompey's decision to go to Egypt was made. While Caesar followed Pompey to Alexandria in 48–7, Brutus worked to effect a reconciliation between various Pompeians and Caesar. He arrived back in Rome in December 47. Caesar appointed Brutus as governor (likely as legatus pro praetore) for Cisalpine Gaul while he left for Africa in pursuit of Cato and Metellus Scipio. After Cato's suicide following defeat at the battle of Thapsus on 6 April 46, Brutus was one of Cato's eulogisers writing a pamphlet entitled Cato in which he reflected positively both on Cato's life while highlighting Caesar's clementia. After Caesar's last battle against the republican remnant in March 45, Brutus divorced his wife Claudia in June and promptly remarried his cousin Porcia, Cato's daughter, late in the same month. According to Cicero the marriage caused a semi-scandal as Brutus failed to state a valid reason for his divorce from Claudia other than he wished to marry Porcia. Brutus' reasons for marrying Porcia are unclear, he may have been in love or it could have been a politically motivated marriage to position Brutus as heir to Cato's supporters. The marriage also caused a rift between Brutus and his mother, who was resentful of the affection Brutus had for Porcia. Brutus also was promised the prestigious urban praetorship for 44 BC and possibly earmarked for the consulship in 41. Assassination of Julius Caesar There are various different traditions describing the way in which Brutus arrived to the decision to assassinate Caesar. Plutarch, Appian, and Cassius Dio, all writing in the imperial period, focused on "pressure from [Brutus'] peers and his own philosophical conviction that awakened.... a sense of duty both to this country