A Short History of Women's Rights · Chapter 6Notes:
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Paulus, iii, 4a, 1.
Ulpian, Tit., xx, 16. Gaius, ii, 112.
Male relatives on the father's side—agnati—were guardians in such cases; these failing, the judge of the supreme court (praetor) assigned one. See Ulpian, Tit., xi, 3, 4, and 24. Gaius, i, 185, and iii, 10. Libertae (freedwomen) took as guardians their former masters.
Ulpian, Tit., xi, 27.
The power of the father was called potestas; that of the husband, manus.
Aulus Gellius, x, 23. Cf. Suetonius, Tiberius, 35.
Gaius, i, 144.
Ulpian, Tit., xi, I.
Ulpian, Tit., xi, 28a. Gaius, i, 194. Paulus, iv, 9, 1-9.
Gaius, i, 145. Ulpian, Tit., x, 5.
Gaius, i, 137. For an example see Pliny, Letters, viii, 18. Cf. Spartianus. Didius Iulianus, 8: filiam suam, potitus imperio, dato patrimonio, emancipaverat. See also Dio, 73, 7 (Xiphilin).
If emancipated children insulted or injured their parents, they lost their independence—Codex, 8, 49 (50), 1.
Ulpian, Tit., viii, 7a.
Paulus, i, 4, 4; Mater, quae filiorum suorum rebus intervenit, actione negotiorum gestorum et ipsis et eorum tutoribus tenebitur.
Ulpian in Dig., 25, 3, 5.
For Livia's great influence over Augustus see Seneca, de Clementia, i, 9, 6. Tacitus, Annals, i, 3, 4, and 5, and ii, 34. Dio, 55, 14-21, and 56, 47.
Agrippina dominated Claudius—Tacitus, Annals, xii, 37. Dio, 60, 33. Caenis, the concubine of Vespasian, amassed great wealth and sold public offices right and left—Dio, 65, 14. Plotina, wife of Trajan, engineered Hadrian's succession—Eutropius, viii, 6. Dio, 69, I. A concubine formed the conspiracy which overthrew Commodus—Herodian, i, 16-17. The plotting of Maesa put Heliogabalus on the throne—Capitolinus, Macrinus, 9-10. Alexander Severus was ruled by his mother Mammaea—Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 14; Herodian, vi, i, i and 9. Gallienus invited women to his cabinet meetings—Trebellius Pollio, Gallienus, 16. The wives of governors took such a strenuous part in politics and army matters that it caused the Senate grave concern—see examples in Tacitus, Annals, in, 33 and 34, and iv, 20; also i, 69, and ii, 55; id. Hist., iii, 69. Vellcius Paterculus, ii, 74 (Fulvia).
Of course, no woman ever had a right to vote; but neither did anybody else, since the Roman government had become an absolute despotism. The first woman on the throne was Pulcheria, who, in 450 A.D., was proclaimed Empress of the East, succeeding her brother, Theodosius II. But she soon took a husband and made him Emperor. She had been practically sole ruler since 414.
Plutarch, Roman Questions, 6. Aulus Gellius, x, 23. Athenaeus, x, 56.
Valerius Maximus, vi, 3, 9. For this he was not even blamed, but rather received praise for the excellent example.
Aulus Gellius, x, 23. A woman in the Menaechmi of Plautus, iv, 6, 1, complains justly of this double standard of morality:
Nam si vir scortum duxit clam uxorem suam,
Id si rescivit uxor, impune est viro.
Uxor viro si clam domo egressa est foras,
Viro fit causa, exigitur matrimonio.
Utinam lex esset cadem quae uxori est viro!
Aulus Gellius, i, 6.
De Consolatione ad Marciam, xvi, 1.
Commentaries, A, γ.
Quintilian, Instit. Orat., vi, 1, 5. Pliny, Letters, vi, 4 and 7, and vii, 5.
Great admiration expressed for Paulina, wife of Seneca, who opened her veins to accompany her husband in death—Tacitus, Annals, xv, 63, 64. Story of Arria and Paetus—Pliny, Letters, iii, 16. Martial, i, 13. The famous instance of Epponina, under Vespasian, and her attachment to her condemned husband—Tacitus, Hist., iv, 67. Tacitus mentions that many ladies accompanied their husbands to exile and death—Annals, xvi, 10, 11. Numerous instances are related by Pliny of tender and happy marriages, terminated only by death—see, e.g., Letters, viii, 5. Pliny the elder tells how M. Lepidus died of regret for his wife after being divorced from her—N.H., vii, 36. Valerius Maximus devotes a whole chapter to Conjugal Love—iv, 6. But the best examples of deep affection are seen in tomb inscriptions—e.g., CIL i, 1103, viii, 8123, ii, 3596, v, 1, 3496, v, 2, 7066, x, 8192, vi, 3, 15696, 15317, and 17690. Man and wife are often represented with arms thrown about one another's shoulders to signify that they were united in death as in life. The poet Statius remarks that "to love a wife when she is living is pleasure; to love her when dead, a solemn duty" (Silvae, in prooemio). Yet some theologians would have us believe that conjugal love and fidelity is an invention of Christianity.
Pliny, Panegyricus, 26. For other instances see Capitolinus, Anton. Pius, 8; Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 57; Spartianus, Hadrian, 7, 8, 9; Capitolinus, M. Anton. Phil., 11.
Gaius, i, 190.
Ulpian, Tit. xi, 25. Cf. Frag, iur Rom. Vatic. (Huschke, 325): Divi Diocletianus et Constantius Aureliae Pontiae: Actor rei forum sequi debet et mulier quoque facere procuratorem sine tutoris auctoritate non prohibetur. So Papinian, lib. xv, Responsorum (Huschke, 327). I shall discuss these matters at greater length when I treat of women and the management of their property.
Dio, 54, 16. Pomponius in Dig., 23, 2, 4.
Gaius, i, 113.
Ulpian, Tit., ix, 1: Farreo convenit uxor in manum certis verbis et testibus X praesentibus et sollemni sacrificio facto, in quo panis quoque farreus adhibetur. Cf. Gaius, i, 112.
Aulus Gellius, iii, 2, 12. Gaius, i, 111.
Gaius, i, 110 and 111.
Paulus, ii, xix, 8.
Pliny, Letters, i, 14, will furnish an example; cf. id. vi, 26, to Servianus: Gaudeo et gratulor, quod Fusco Salinatori filiam tuam destinasti. Note the way in which Julius Caesar arranged a match for his daughter—Suetonius, Divus Julius, 21.
Paulus in Dig., 23, 2, 2: Nuptiae consistere non possunt, nisi consentiunt omnes, id est, qui coeunt quorumque in potestate sunt.
Julianus in Dig., 23, 1, 11.
Ulpian in Dig., 23, 1, 12.
Paulus in Dig., 23, 1, 13. Terentius Clemens in Dig., 23, 2, 21.
Paulus, ii, 19, 2.
Ulpian, 24, 17.
Cf. Ulpian, Tit., vi, 6: Divortio facto, si quidem sui juris sit muller, ipsa habet rei uxoriae actionem, id est, dotis repetitionem; quodsi in potestate patris sit, pater adiuncta filiae persona habet actionem.
The technical recognition of the father's power was still strong. Cf. Pliny, Panegyricus, 38: Tu quidem, Caesar ... intuitus, opinor, vim legemque naturae, quae semper in dicione parentum esse liberos iussit. The same writer, on requesting Trajan to give citizenship to the children of a certain freedman, is careful to add the specification that they are to remain in their father's power—see Pliny to Trajan, xi (vi).
Paulus, vi, 15. Codex, v, 4, 11, and 17, 5.
Paulus, in Dig., 23, 3, 28. Codex, v, 13, 1, and 18, 1.
Codex, v, 17, 5.
Salvius Julianus: Frag. Perp. Ed.: Pars Prima, vii—under "De is qui notantur infamia."
Codex, 8, 46 (47), 5.
Aulus Gellius, iv, 4.
Juvenal, vi, 200-203. Gaius in Dig., 24, 2, 2. Ulpian, ibid., 23, I, 10. Codex, v, 17, 2, and v, I, I.
Codex, v, 3, 2.
Dig., 3, 2, 1.
Ulpian in Dig., 47, 10, 24.
Cf. Alexander Severus in Codex, viii, 38, 2: Libera matrimonia esse antiquitus placuit, etc. Also Codex, v, 4, 8 and 14.
Modestinus in Dig., xxiii, 2, 1.
Gaius, ii, 159.
Paulus, ii, xx, 1.
Note the rescript of Alexander Severus to a certain Aquila (Codex, ii, 18, 13): Quod in uxorem tuam aegram erogasti, non a socero repetere, sed adfectioni tuae debes expendere.
See, e.g., Dig., 47, 10, and Ulpian, ibid., 48, 14, 27.
Cf. Gaius, i, 141: In summa admonendi sumus, adversus eos, quos in mancipio habemus, nihil nobis contumeliose facere licere; alioquin iniuriarum (actione) tenebimur.
Paulus, i, 21, 13.
Paulus, i, 21, 14.
Codex, ii, 11, 15
Paulus in Dig., iii, 2, 9.
Aulus Gellius, xvii, 6, speech of Cato: Principio vobis mulier magnam dotem adtulit; tum magnam pecuniam recipit, quam in viri potestatem non committit, ean pecuniam viro mutuam dat; postea, ubi irata facta est, servum recepticum sectari atque flagitare virum iubet.
Paulus in Dig., 23, 3, 2.
Pomponius in Dig., 24, 3, 1.
Ulpian in Dig., 23, 3, 7.
Tryfoninus in Dig., 23, 3, 75.
Gaius, ii, 63. Paulus, ii, 21b.
E.g. Juvenal, vi, 136-141. Martial, viii, 12.
Apuleius Apologia, 523: Pleraque tamen rei familiaris in nomen uxoris callidissima fraude confert, etc.; id., 545, 546 proves further the power of the wife: ea condicione factam conjunctionem, si nullis a me susceptis liberis vita demigrasset, ut dos omnis, etc.—evidently the woman was dictating the disposal of her dowry.
Ulpian, Tit., vi, 3, 4, and 5. Codex, v, 18, 4.
Ulpian in Dig., xi, 7, 16; ibid., Papinian, 17; ibid, Julianus, 18. Paulus, i, xxi, 11.
Ulpian in Dig., 48, 20, 3.
Ulpian in Dig., 48, 20, 5.
Ulpian in Dig., 24, 1, 1: Moribus apud nos receptum est, ne inter virum et uxorem donationes valerent, hoc autem receptum est, ne mutuo amore invicem spoliarentur, donationibus non temperantes, sed profusa erga se facilitate.
Paulus in Dig., 24, 1, 14.
Gaius in Dig., 24, 1, 42; ibid., Licinius Rufus, 41; Ulpian, Tit. vii, 1. Martial, vii, 64—et post hoc dominae munere factus eques.
Paulus, ii, xxiii, 1.
Cf. Paulus, ii, xxiii, 2.
Paulus in Dig., 25, 2, 1. Codex, v, 21, 2.
Gaius in Dig., 25, 2, 2.
Paulus in Dig., 25, 2, 3.
Ulpian in Dig., 47, 2, 52. The respect shown for family relations may be seen also from the fact that a son could complain—de facto matris queri—if he believed that his mother had brought in supposititious offspring to defraud him of some of his inheritance; but he was strictly forbidden to bring her into court with a public and criminal action—Macer in Dig., 48, 2, 11: sed ream eam lege Cornelia facere permissum ei non est.
Ulpian in Dig., 48, 14, 27.
Ulpian in Dig., 48, 5, 14 (13): Iudex adulterii ante oculos habere debet et inquirere, an maritus pudice vivens mulieri quoque bonos mores colendi auctor fuerit periniquum enim videtur esse, ut pudicitiam vir ab uxore exigat, quam ipse non exhibeat. Cf. Seneca, Ep., 94: Scis improbum esse qui ab uxore pudicitiam exigit, ipse alienarum corruptor uxorum. Scis ut illi nil cum adultero, sic nihil tibi esse debere cum pellice. Antoninus Pius gave a husband a bill for adultery against his wife "Provided it is established that by your life you give her an example of fidelity. It would be unjust that a husband should demand a fidelity which he does not himself keep"—quoted by St. Augustine, de Conj. Adult., ii, ch. 8. In view of these explicit statements it is difficult to see what the Church Father Lactantius meant by asserting (de Vero Cultu, 23): Non enim, sicut iuris publici ratio est, sola mulier adultera est, quae habet alium; maritus autem, etiamsi plures habeat, a crimine adulterii solutus est. Perhaps this deliberate distortion of the truth was another one of the libels against pagan Rome of which the pious Fathers are so fond "for the good of the Church."
Papinian in Dig., 48, 5, 21 (20); ibid., Ulpian, 24 (23). Paulus, ii, xxvi.
Macer in Dig., 48, 5, 25 (24).
Papinian in Dig., 48, 5, 23 (22).
Papinian in Dig., 48, 5, 39 (38); ibid., Marcianus, 48, 8, 1.
Paulus, ii, xxvi. Macer in Dig., 48, 5, 25 (24), ibid., Ulpian, 48, 5, 30 (29).
Paulus, ii, xxvi.
Juvenal, x. 317; quosdam moechos et mugilis intrat. Cf. Catullus, 15, 19.
See, e.g., Capitolinus, Anton. Pius, 3. Spartianus, Sept. Severus, 18, Pliny, Panegyricus, 83: multis illustribus dedecori fuit aut inconsultius uxor assumpta aut retenta patientius, etc.
Pliny, Letters, vi, 31.
Paulus, ii, xxvi, 15.
Valerius Maximus, ii, 1, 6.
Aulus Gellius, xvii, 21, 44. Valerius Maximus, ii, 1, 4. Plutarch, Roman Questions, 14.
Valerius Maximus, vi, 3, 12.
"If you should catch your wife in adultery, you would put her to death with impunity; she, on her part, would not dare to touch you with her finger; and it is not right that she should"—Speech of Cato the Censor, quoted by Aulus Gellius, x, 23.
E.g., Marcellus in Dig., 24, 3, 38: Maevia Titio repudium misit, etc.; ibid., Africanus, 24, 3, 34: Titia divortium a Seio fecit, etc. Martial, x, 41: Mense novo lani veterem, Proculeia, maritum Deseris, atque iubes res sibi habere suas. Apuleius, Apologia, 547: utramvis habens culpam mulier, quae aut tam intolerabilis fuit ut repudiaretur aut tam insolens ut repudiaret.
Novellae, 140, 1: Antiquitus quidem licebat sine periculo tales [i.e., those of incompatible temperament] ab invicem separari secundum communem voluntatem et consensum.
Martial, vi, 7.
Aulus Gellius, x, 15: Matrimonium flaminis nisi morte dirimi ius non est.
Tacitus, Annals, iv, 16.
Ulpian, vi, 6; id. in Dig., 24, 3, 2. Pauli fragmentam in Boethii commentario ad Topica, 2, 4, 19.
Paulus in Dig. ii,3, 41.
Ulpian, vi, 13.
Ulpian, vi, 9-17, and vii, 2-3. Pauli frag, in Boethii comm. ad Top., ii, 4, 19.
Ulpian, xiv: feminis lex Iulia a morte viri anni tribuit vacationem, a divortio sex mensum; lex autem Papia a morte viri biennii, a repudio anni et sex mensum.
Ulpian in Dig., 25, 3, 1. Paulus, ii, xxiv, 5.
Ulpian in Dig., 25, 4, 8.
Codex, v, 24, 1.
Codex, vi, 60, 1: Res, quae ex matris successione fuerint ad filios devolutae, ita sint in parentum potestate, ut fruendi dumtaxat habeant facultatem, dominio videlicet carum ad liberos pertinente.
Neratius in Dig., 26, 1, 18.
Codex, v, 35, 1.
Codex, ii, 12, 18: alienam suscipere defensionem virile officium est ... filio itaque tuo, si pupillus est, tutorem pete.
Ulpian, Tit. viii, 7a. Paulus, i, 4, 4.
ad Helviam matrem de consol., xiv, 3.
Other instances of women trustees will be found in Apuleius, Apologia 516; Paulus in Dig; iii, 5,23 (24): avia nepotis sui negotia gessit, etc.; ibid., Marcellus, 46, 3, 48: Titia cum propter dotem bona mariti possideret, omnia pro domina egit, reditus exegit, etc.
Tacitus, Agricola, 43.
Frag. iur. Rom. Vat., 282.
Ulpian, viii, 7a.
Gaius, ii, 227. Digest, 35, 2.
E.g. Pliny, Letters, v, 1. Codex, iii, 28, 19; id., iii, 28, 28. Cf. Codex, iii, 29, I, and 29, 7; and Paulus in Dig., v, 2, 19. Note the extreme anxiety of the son of Prudentilla about her money as given by Apuleius, Apologia, 517. The estate of a mother who died intestate went to her children, not to her husband; the latter could only enjoy the interest until they arrived at maturity—Codex, vi, 60, 1; Modestinus in Dig., 38, 17, 4.
E.g., Juvenal, iv, 18-21. Pliny, Letters, ii, 20.
Digest, xiv, 1 and 3 and 8—on the actio exercitoria and institoria. Cf. Codex, iv, 25, 4: et si a muliere magister navis praepositus fuerit, etc.
CIL, xiv, 326.
Martial, xi, 71. Apuleius, Metam., v, 10. Soranus, i, 1, ch. 1 and 2. Galen, vii, 414 (cf. xiii, 341).
E.g. Suetonius, Nero, 27.
Carmina Priapea, 18 and 27. Ulpian, xiii, 1. The Roman drama had now degenerated into mere vaudeville, mostly lascivious dancing. Senators and their children were forbidden to marry any woman who had herself or whose father or mother had been on the stage.
Martial, ii, 17, 1.
Petronius, Sat., 45: Titus noster ... habet et mulierem essedariam. This would not be strange, when we reflect that under Domitian noble ladies even fought in the arena.
Thesmophoriazusae, 443-459.
See Cicero, pro Caecina, 5, for an account of these business agents for women.
Paulus, ii, xi; id. in Dig., 16, 1, 1; Aulus Gellius, v, 19; Pomponius in Dig., 48, 2, 1: non est permissum mulieri publico iudicio quemquam reum facere.
Ulpian in Dig., 1, 16, 9. Salvius Julianus, Pars Prima, vi: si non habebunt advocatum, ego dabo. Alexander Severus (222-235 A.D.) gave pensions to those advocates in the provinces who pleaded free of charge—Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 44.
Cf. Paulus in Dig., 23, 3, 28. Codex, v, 13, 1, and 18, 1. Ulpian in Dig., iii, 3, 8.
Gaius, i, 137.
Frag. iur. Rom. Vat., 325; id., 327 (from Papinian): mulieres quoque et sine tutoris auctoritate procuratorem facere posse.
Ulpian in Dig., iii, 3, 8; ibid., Paulus, iii, 3, 41.
Ulpian in Dig., iii, 5, 3.
Pomponius in Dig., 48, 2, 1; ibid., Papinian, 48, 2, 2—who adds that she could also do so in a case regarding the will of a mother or father's freedman.
Marcianus in Dig., 48, 2, 13.
Papinian in Dig., 48, 4, 8.
Juvenal, vi, 242—245.
Valerius Maximus, viii, 3, 3. Appian, B.C., iv, 32 ff. Quintilian, i, 1, 6.
Valerius Maximus, viii, 3, 2.
Quintilian, ix, 2, 20 and 34.
E.g., Pliny Letters, i, 5, and iv, 17.
E.g., Huschke, pp. 796, 797, 803, 807, 809, 810, 856, 857, 858. Or instances such as that mentioned in Digest, 48, 2, 18, where a sister brings an action to prove her brother's will a forgery.
Pliny, Letters, vi, 33.
Paulus in Dig., 22, 6, 9.
Fully treated in Dig., 16, 1, and Paulus, ii, xi.
Ulpian in Dig., 16, 1, 2.
Aulus Gellius, xvii, 6. St. Augustine, de Civit. Dei, iii, 21: nam tunc, id est inter secundum et postremum bellum Carthaginiense, lata est etiam illa lex Voconis, ne quis heredem feminam faceret, nec unicam filiam.
Dio, 56, 10.
Aulus Gellius, xx, 1, 23. According to Dio, 56, 10, it was Augustus who in the year 9 A.D. gave women permission to inherit any amount.
Fully treated in Dig., 35, 2. Also in Gaius, ii, 227, and Paulus, iii, viii, 1-3, and iv, 3, 3, and 5 and 6.
Paulus, iv, Tit. v, 1. Cases in which "Complaints of Undutiful Will" were the issue will be found, e.g., in Codex, iii, 28, 1 and 19 and 28; id., iii, 29, 1 and 7.
Ulpian in Dig., 38, 16, 1: suos heredes accipere debemus filios filias sive naturales sive adoptivos. Instances of daughters being left heiresses of whole estates may be found, e.g., in Dig., 28, 2, 19: cum quidam filiam ex asse heredem scripsisset filioque, quem in potestate habebat, decem legasset, etc. Or the example mentioned by Scaevola in Dig., 41, 9, 3: Duae filiae intestato patri heres exstiterunt, etc.
Callistratus in Dig., 48, 19, 26: crimen vel poena paterna nullam maculam filio infligere potest. namque unusquisque ex suo admisso sorti subicitur nec alieni criminis successor constituitur; idque divi fratres Hierapolitanis rescripserunt. "Nothing is more unjust," writes Seneca (de Ira, ii, 34, 3), "than that any one should become the heir of the odium excited by his father."
Paulus, v, xii, 1.
Paulus, v, xii, 12.
Ulpian in Dig., 48, 4, 11.
Ulpian in Dig., 48, 4, 11.
Hermogenianus in Dig., 48, 4, 9.
Sulla had not only deprived the children of the proscribed of all their estates, but had also debarred them from aspiring to any political office—see Velleius Paterculus, ii, 28.
For examples of the clemency of Augustus see Suetonius, div. Aug., 33 and 51 and 67; Seneca, de Ira, iii, 23, 4 ff., and 40, 2; Velleius Paterculus, ii, 86, 87.
For Tiberius see, e.g., Tacitus, Annals, iv—case of Silius; id., Annals, iii, 17, 18—case of Piso. For Nero, note Tacitus, Annals, xiii, 43—case of Publius Suilius. Clemency of Claudius mentioned in Dio, 60, 15, 16; of Vitellius in Tacitus, Hist., ii, 62.
Spartianus, Had., 18.
Capitolinus, Anton. Pius, 7. See also the anecdote of Aurelian in Vopiscus, Aurelian, 23.
Codex, iv, 12, 2, rescript of Diocletian: ob maritorum culpam uxores inquietari leges vetant. proinde rationalis noster, si res quae a fisco occupatae sunt dominii tui esse probaveris, ius publicum sequetur.
Gaius, ii, 129 and 132.
Gaius, ii, 132.
Codex, iii, 36, 11: Inter filios ac filias bona intestatorum parentium pro virilibus portionibus aequo iure dividi oportere explorati iuris est.
Gaius, iii, 25-31.
See, e.g., Codex, vi, 60, i: Res, quae ex matris successione fuerint ad filios devolutae, ita sint in parentum potestate, ut fruendi dumtaxat habeant facultatem, dominio videlicet eorum ad liberos pertinente.
For all this, see Codex, v, 9, 5, and vi, 18, q.
Paulus, v, 4, 14, who adds that exile was the penalty if the crime had not been completely carried out. It would seem also that ravished women had the option of deciding whether their seducers should marry them or be put to death—see the vitiatarum electiones as mentioned by Tacitus, Dial. de Orat., 35. According to Ruffus, 40, a soldier who did violence to a girl had his nostrils cut off, besides being forced to give the injured woman a third part of his goods: militi, qui puellae vim adtulerit et stupraverit, nares abscinduntur, data puellae tertia militis facultatum parte.
Paulus, v, 4, 21.
By the lex Fabia. Paulus, v, 30 B. Digest, 48, 15; 17, 2, 51.
Ulpian in Dig., 48, 8, 8; ibid., Tryphoninus, 48, 19, 39.
Paulus, v, 23, 14; id. in Dig., 48, 19, 38.
Paulus, supra cit.
Martial, x, 35, and x, 38.
Sappho, Telesilla, and Corinna belong to an earlier period, when the Oriental idea of seclusion for women had not yet become firmly fixed in Greece. Women like Agallis of Corcyra, who wrote on grammar (Athenaeus, i, 25) and lived in a much later age, doubtless belonged to the hetaerae class.
See, e.g., Pliny, Letters, v, 16.
Pliny, Letters, i, 16.
Persius, i, 4-5: Ne mihi Polydamas et Troiades Labeonem praetulerint? "Are you afraid that Polydamas and the Trojan Ladies will prefer Labeo to me?" The Trojan Ladies, of course, stand for the aristocratic classes, Colonial Dames, so to speak, who were fond of tracing their descent back to Troy just as Americans like to discover that their ancestors came over in the Mayflower.
Juvenal, vi, 434-440.
Cf. Martial, ii, 90: sit mihi verna satur, sit non doctissima coniunx.
The famous verses of Martial:
Quid tibi nobiscum, ludi scelerate magister?
Invisum pueris virginibusque caput!
Vespasian (69-79 A.D.) started free public education by appointing Quintilian Professor of Rhetoric subsidised by the state. Succeeding emperors enlarged upon it; but especially Alexander Severus (222-235 A.D.), who instituted salaries for teachers of rhetoric, literature, medicine, mechanics, and architecture in Rome and the provinces, and had poor boys attend the lectures free of charge—see Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 44.
Pliny, Paneg., 26. Spartianus, Hadrian, 7, 8-9. Capitolinus, Anton. Pius 8; id. M. Anton. Phil. II. Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 57.
Pliny, Letters, vii, 18. The sum was 500,000 sesterces.
Any infringement of this vow was punished by burial alive—for instances, see Suetonius, Domitian, 8; Herodian, iv, 6, 4: Pliny, Letters iv, 11; Dio, 77, 16 (Xiphilin). Their paramours were beaten to death.
A full account of the Vestals will be found in Aulus Gellius, i, 12.
Quintilian, vii, 3, 27: ad servum nulla lex pertinet. On the rare instances when a slave could inform against his master in a public court, see Hermogenianus in Dig., v, 1, 53.
Gaius, i, 52 ff.
Gaius, iii, 222. Cf. Juvenal vi, 219-223, and 474-495.
Gaius, iii, 222. Salvius Julianus, Pars Secunda, xv. Aulus Gellius, xx, i.
Paulus, v, 16.
Paulus, iii, v, 5 ff. Pliny, Letters, viii, 14. Tacitus, Annals xiii, 32.
Valerius Maximus, vi, 8, in a chapter entitled de fide servorum speaks with great admiration of instances of fidelity on the part of slaves. Seneca ate with his—Epist. 47, 13. Martial laments the death of a favourite slave girl—v, 34 and 37. Dio (62, 27—Xiphilin) notes the heroic conduct of Epicharis, a freedwoman, who was included in a conspiracy against Nero; but she revealed none of its secrets, though tortured in every way by Tigellinus. The pages of Pliny are full of the spirit of kindliness to slaves.
See Tacitus, Annals, xiv, 42 ff.
Suetonius, Claudius, 25. Dio, 60, 29 (Xiphilin).
Sec, e.g., Seneca, de Clem., i,18, 1 and 2—especially the anecdote of Vedius Pollio (mentioned also by Dio, 54, 23).
The interesting letter of Pliny, viii, 16; and cf. iii, 14, and v, 19. Juvenai, vi, 219-223.
Spartianus, Hadrian, 18.
Gaius, i, 52 ff. Cf. Ulpian in Dig., 1, 12, 1 and 8.
The punishment for this was pecuniary damages equal to twice the highest value of a slave during the year in which he was killed.
Ulpian in Dig., i., 12, 8: hoc quoque officium praefecto urbi a divo Severo datum est, ut mancipia tueatur ne prostituantur.
Vopiscus, Aurelian, 49
Vopiscus, Tacitus, 9.