his own power to discharge in any way correspondent to his own feelings and Scipio's claims upon his gratitude. Then the maiden's parents and relatives were summoned. Finding that she was to be restored to them gratuitously, whereas they had come prepared with a considerable weight of gold for her ransom, they began to entreat Scipio to receive it from them as a present, protesting that in so doing he would confer upon them an obligation not less than this free and honorable restoration of their daughter. Seeing them so earnest in their request, Scipio promised that he would accept the gold, and ordered it to be laid at his feet. Then, calling Allucius to him, he said: "As an addition to the dowry which you will receive from your father-in-law, take this as my wedding present;" and he desired him to take the gold for himself.

The bridegroom took his leave, delighted alike at the gift and the compliment, and went home to fill the ears of his countrymen with the praises of Scipio: "There had come upon earth a hero like unto the gods, conquering all men not only by his valor, but by his kindness and munificence." And he straightway made a levy of his retainers, and, with fifteen hundred picked horsemen, returned in a few days to Scipio.

THE ROMAN DEBATE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS.

THE Oppian law, enacted during the heat of the Punic War, required no woman should possess more than half an ounce of gold, or

that "

wear a garment of various colors, or ride in a carriage drawn by horses, in a city, or any town, or any place nearer thereto than one mile; except on occasion of some publle religious solemnity." In the year 196 B.C. two tribunes of the people proposed to repeal this law, while two other tribunes opposed the movement. Many of the nobility argued for and against the motion proposed. Livy's account of the agitation in Rome and the debate in the Senate has many features of modern aspect.

THE Capitol was filled with crowds, who favored or opposed the law; nor could the matrons be kept at home, either by advice or shame, nor even by the commands of their husbands; but beset every street and passage in the city, beseeching the men as they went down to the forum, that in the present flourishing state of the commonwealth, when the private fortune of all was daily increasing, they would suffer the women to have their former ornaments of dress restored. This throng of women increased daily, for they arrived even from the country towns and villages; and they had at length the boldness to approach the consuls, prætors, and magistrates, to urge their request. One of the consuls, however, they found especially inexorable-Marcus Porcius Cato-who, in support of the existing law, spoke to this effect:

"If, Romans, every man among us had made it a rule to maintain the husband's prerogative and authority with respect to his own wife, we should have less trouble with the whole sex. But now, our rights, being overpowered at home by female contumacy, are, even here in the forum, spurned and trodden under foot; and because we are unable to withstand each woman separately, we now dread their collective body. I was accustomed to think it a fabulous and fictitious tale, that, in a certain island the whole race of males was utterly extirpated by a conspiracy of the women. But the utmost danger may be apprehended equally from either sex, if you suffer cabals, assemblies, and secret consultations to be held : scarcely, indeed, can I determine, in my own mind, whether the act itself, or the precedent that it affords, is of more pernicious tendency. The latter of these more particularly concerns us consuls and the other magistrates: the former concerns you all. It was not without painful emotions of

shame, that I just now made my way into the forum through the midst of a band of women. Had I not been restrained by respect for the modesty and dignity of some individuals among them, rather than of the whole number, and been unwilling that they should be seen rebuked by a consul, I should have said to them, 'What sort of practice is this, of running out into public, crowding the streets, and addressing other women's husbands? Could not each have made the same request to her husband at home? Are your blandishments more seducing in public than in private; and with other women's husbands than with your own? Although if the modesty of matrons confined them within the limits of their own rights, it did not become you, even at home, to concern yourselves about what laws might be passed or repealed here.'

"Our ancestors thought it not proper that women should perform any, even private business, without a director; but that they should be ever under the control of parents, brothers, or husbands. We, it seems, suffer them now to interfere in the management of state affairs, and to introduce themselves into the forum, into general assemblies, and into assemblies of election. For, what are they doing at this moment in your streets and lanes? What but arguing, some in support of the motion of the plebeian tribunes; others for the repeal of the law? Will you give the reins to their intractable nature, and their uncontrolled passions, and then expect that themselves should set bounds to their licentiousness, when you have failed to do so? This is the smallest of the injunctions laid on them by usage or the laws, all which women bear with impatience: they long for liberty; or rather, to speak the truth, for unbounded freedom in every particular. What will they not attempt if they now come off victorious?

"Recollect all the institutions respecting the sex, by which our forefathers restrained their undue freedom, and by which they subjected them to their husbands; and yet ever with the help of all tnese restrictions, you can scarcely keep them within bounds. If, then, you suffer them to throw thes off one by one, to tear them all asunder, and, at last, to be set on an equal footing with yourselves, can you imagine that

they will be any longer endurable by you? The moment they have arrived at an equality with you, they will have become your superiors.

"I should like, however, to hear what this important affair is which has induced the matrons thus to run out into public in this excited manner, scarcely refraining from pushing into the forum and the assembly of the people. Is it to solicit that their parents, their husbands, children, and brothers may be ransomed from captivity under Hannibal? By no means: and far be ever from the commonwealth so unfortunate a situation. Yet, even when such was the case, you refused this to their prayers. But it is not duty, nor solicitude for their friends; it is religion that has collected them together. They are about to receive the new goddess, the Idæan mother (Cybele) coming out of Phrygia! What motive, that even common decency will allow to be mentioned, is pretended for this female insurrection? Why, say they, that we may shine in gold and purple; that, both on festal and common days, we may ride through the city in our chariots, triumphing over vanquished and abrogated law, after having captured and wrested from you your suffrages; and that there may be no bounds to our expenses and our luxury.

"Often have you heard me complain of the profuse expenses of the women-often of those of the men; and that not only of men in private stations, but of the magistrates: and that the state was endangered by two opposite vices, luxury and avarice; those pests, which have been the ruin of all great empires. These I dread the more, as the circumstances of the commonwealth grow daily more prosperous and happy; as the empire increases; as we have now passed over into Greece and Asia, places abounding with every kind of temptation that can inflame the passions; and as we have begun to handle even royal treasures, so much the more do I fear that these matters will bring us into captivity, rather than we them.

"Do not suppose that the matter will hereafter be in the same state in which it was before the law was made on the subject. It is safer that a wicked man should even never be accused, than that he should be acquitted; and luxury, if it

had never been meddled with, would be more tolerable than it will be now, like a wild beast, irritated by having been chained, and then let loose. My opinion is that the Oppian law ought, on no account, to be repealed. Whatever determination you may come to, I pray all the gods to prosper it."

After him the plebeian tribunes, who had declared their intention of protesting, added a few words to the same purport. Then Lucius Valerius spoke thus in support of the measure which he himself had introduced:-"If private persons only had stood forth to argue for and against the proposition which we have submitted to your consideration, I for my part, thinking enough to have been said on both sides, would have waited in silence for your determination. But since a person of most respectable judgment, the consul, Marcus Porcius Cato, has reprobated our motion, not only by the influence of his opinion, which, had he said nothing, would carry very great weight, but also in a long and careful discourse, it becomes necessary to say a few words in answer. He has spent more words in rebuking the matrons than in arguing against the measure proposed; and even went so far as to mention a doubt, whether the matrons had committed the conduct which he censured in them spontaneously or at our instigation. I shall defend the measure, not ourselves: for the consul threw out those insinuations against us, rather for argument's sake, than as a serious charge. He has made use of the terms 'cabal and sedition,' and, again, 'secession of the women:' because the matrons had requested of you, in the public streets, that, in this time of peace, when the commonwealth is flourishing and happy, you would repeal a law that was made against them during a war, and in times of distress. I know that these and other similar strong expressions are easily invented for the purpose of exaggeration; and, mild as Marcus Cato is in his disposition, yet in his speeches he is not only vehement, but sometimes even austere. What new thing, let me ask, have the matrons done in coming out into public in a body on an occasion which nearly concerns themselves? Have they never before appeared in public? I will turn over your own Antiquities,* and quote them against you. * Cato's "Origines," or Early History of Rome, which has been lost.