The exact timing of her death is also a problem. Most contemporary historians (Cassius Dio, Valerius Maximus, and Appian) claim that she killed herself after hearing that Brutus had died following the second battle of Philippi. Nicolaus says it happened before Brutus' death, however, saying she died following the first battle of Philippi, claiming that she only thought he was dead, and that Brutus wrote a letter to their friends in Rome, blaming them for Porcia's suicide. Plutarch dismisses Nicolaus' claims of a letter stating that too much was disclosed in the letter for it to be genuine. Plutarch also repeats the story of swallowing charcoal, but disbelieves it:As for Porcia, the wife of Brutus, Nicolaüs the philosopher, as well as Valerius Maximus, relates that she now desired to die, but was opposed by all her friends, who kept strict watch upon her; whereupon she snatched up live coals from the fire, swallowed them, kept her mouth fast closed, and thus made away with herself. And yet there is extant a letter of Brutus to his friends in which he chides them with regard to Porcia and laments her fate, because she was neglected by them and therefore driven by illness to prefer death to life. It would seem, then, that Nicolaüs was mistaken in the time of her death, since her distemper, her love for Brutus, and the manner of her death, are also indicated in the letter, if, indeed, it is a genuine one.