While he was still a youth, he made a journey to Cyprus with his uncle Cato, who was sent out against Ptolemy. And when Ptolemy made away with himself, Cato, who was himself obliged to tarry a while in Rhodes, had already dispatched one of his friends, Canidius, to take charge of the king’s treasures; but fearing that he would not refrain from theft, he wrote to Brutus bidding him sail with all speed to Cyprus from Pamphylia, where he was recruiting his health after a severe sickness. Brutus set sail, but very much against his will, both because he had regard for Canidius, whom he thought to have been ignominiously discarded by Cato, and because on general grounds he considered such painstaking attention to administrative affairs to be illiberal and unworthy of himself as a young man addicted to letters. However, he applied himself to this task also, and won Cato’s praise, and after converting the king’s property into money, took most of the treasure and set sail for Rome.