At Rome, in this year, for the first time, were created offices called triumviri epulones;[27] these were Caius Licinius Lucullus, who, as tribune, had proposed the law for their creation, Publius Manlius, and Publius Porcius Laeca. These triumvirs, as well as the pontiffs, were allowed by law the privilege of wearing the purple-bordered gown. The body of the pontiffs had this year a warm dispute with the city quaestors, Quintus Fabius Labeo and Lucius Aurelius. Money was wanted; an order having been passed for making the last payment to private persons of that which had been raised for the support of the war; and the quaestors demanded it from the augurs and pontiffs, because they had not contributed their share while the war subsisted. The priests in vain appealed to the tribunes; and the contribution was exacted for every year in which they had not paid. During the same year two pontiffs died, and others were substituted in their room: Marcus Marcellus, the consul, in the room of Caius Sempronius Tuditanus, who had been a praetor in Spain; and Lucius Valerius, in the room of Marcus Cornelius Cethegus. An augur also, Quintius Fabius Maximus, died very young, before he had attained to any public office; but no augur was appointed in his place during that year. The consular election was then held by the consul Marcellus. The persons chosen were, Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Porcius Cato. Then were elected praetors, Caius Fabricius Luscinus, Caius Atinius Labeo, Cneius Manlius Vulso, Appius Claudius Nero, Publius Manlius, and Publius Porcius Laeca. The curule aediles, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Caius Flaminius, made a distribution to the people of one million pecks of wheat, at the price of two asses. This corn the Sicilians had brought to Rome, out of respect to Caius Flaminius and his father; and he gave share of the credit to his colleague. The Roman games were solemnized with magnificence, and exhibited thrice entire. The plebeian aediles, Cneius Domitius Aenobarbus and Caius Scribonius, chief curio, brought many farmers of the public pastures to trial before the people. Three of these were convicted; and out of the money accruing from fines imposed on them, they built a temple of Faunus in the island. The plebeian games were exhibited for two days, and there was a feast on occasion of the games.
Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Porcius, on the ides of March, the day of their entering into office, consulted the senate respecting the provinces; who resolved, that "whereas the war in Spain was grown so formidable, as to require a consular army and commander; it was their opinion, therefore, that the consuls should either settle between themselves, or cast lots, for Hither Spain and Italy as their provinces. That he to whom Spain fell should carry with him two legions, five thousand of the Latin confederates, and five hundred horse; together with a fleet of twenty ships of war. That the other consul should raise two legions; for these would be sufficient to maintain tranquillity in the province of Gaul, as the spirits of the Insubrians and Boians had been broken the year before." The lots gave Spain to Cato, and Italy to Valerius. The praetors then cast lots for their provinces: to Caius Fabricius Luscinus fell the city jurisdiction; Caius Atinius Labeo obtained the foreign; Cneius Manlius Vulso, Sicily; Appius Claudius Nero, Farther Spain; Publius Porcius Laeca, Pisa, in order that he might be at the back of the Ligurians; and Publius Manlius was sent into Hither Spain, as an assistant to the consul. Quinctius was continued in command for the year, as apprehensions were entertained, not only of Antiochus and the Aetolians, but likewise of Nabis, tyrant of Lacedaemon; and it was ordered that he should have two legions, for which, if there was any necessity for a further supply, the consuls were ordered to raise recruits, and send them into Macedonia. Appius Claudius was permitted to raise, in addition to the legion which Quintius Fabius had commanded, two thousand foot and two hundred horse. The like number of new-raised foot and horse was assigned to Publius Manlius for Hither Spain; and the legion was given to him which had been under the command of Minucius, the praetor. To Publius Porcius Laeca, for Etruria, near Pisa, were decreed two thousand foot and five hundred horse, out of the army in Gaul. Sempronius Longus was continued in command in Sardinia.
The provinces being thus distributed, the consuls, before their departure from the city, were ordered, in accordance with a decree of the pontiffs, to proclaim a sacred spring, which Aulus Cornelius Mammula, praetor, had vowed in pursuance of a vote of the senate, and an order of the people, in the consulate of Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius. It was celebrated twenty-one years after the vow had been made. About the same time, Caius Claudius Pulcher, son of Appius, was chosen and inaugurated into the office of augur, in the room of Quintus Fabius Maximus, who died the year before. While people, in general, wondered that, though Spain had arisen in arms, they were neglecting the war, a letter was brought from Quintus Minucius, announcing "that he had fought a pitched battle with the Spanish generals, Budar and Besasis, near the town of Tura, and had gained the victory: that twelve thousand of the enemy were slain; their general, Budar, taken; and the rest routed and dispersed." After the reading of this letter less alarm prevailed with respect to Spain, where a very formidable war had been apprehended. The whole anxiety of the public was directed towards king Antiochus, especially after the arrival of the ten ambassadors. These, after relating the proceedings with Philip, and the conditions on which peace had been granted him, gave information, that "there still subsisted a war of no less magnitude to be waged with Antiochus; that he had come over into Europe with a very numerous fleet and a powerful army; that, had not a delusive prospect of an opportunity of invading Egypt, raised by a more delusive rumour, diverted him to another quarter, all Greece would have quickly been involved in the flames of war. Nor would even the Aetolians remain quiet, a race as well restless by nature as full of anger against the Romans. That, besides, there was another evil, of a most dangerous nature, lurking in the bowels of Greece: Nabis, tyrant at present of Lacedaemon, but who would soon if suffered, become tyrant of all Greece, equalling in avarice and cruelty all the tyrants most remarkable in history. For, if he were allowed to keep possession of Argos, which served as a citadel commanding the Peloponnesus, when the Roman armies should be brought home to Italy, Greece would have been in vain delivered out of bondage to Philip; because, instead of that king, who, supposing no other difference, resided at a distance, she would have for a master, a tyrant, close to her side."
On this intelligence being received from men of such respectable authority, and who had, besides, examined into all the matters which were reported, the senate, although they deemed the business relating to Antiochus the more important, yet, as the king had, for some reason or other, gone home into Syria, they thought that the affair respecting the tyrant ought to be more promptly attended to. After debating, for a long time, whether they should judge the grounds which they had at present sufficient whereon a declaration of war should be decreed, or whether they should empower Titus Quinctius to act, in the case respecting Nabis the Lacedaemonian, in such manner as he should judge conducive to the public interest; they left it in his hands. For they thought the business of such a nature, that whether expedited or delayed, it could not very materially affect the general interest of the Roman people. It was deemed more important to endeavour to discover what line of conduct Hannibal and the Carthaginians would pursue, in case of a war breaking out with Antiochus. Persons of the faction which opposed Hannibal wrote continually to their several friends, among the principal men in Rome, that "messages and letters were sent by Hannibal to Antiochus, and that envoys came secretly from the king to him. That, as some wild beasts can never be tamed, so the disposition of this man was irreclaimable and implacable. That he sometimes complained, that the state was debilitated by ease and indolence, and lulled by sloth into a lethargy, from which nothing could rouse it but the sound of arms." These accounts were deemed probable, when people recollected the former war, which had not more been carried on than at first set on foot by the efforts of that single man. Besides, he had by a recent act provoked the resentment of many men in power.
The order of judges possessed, at that time, absolute power in Carthage; and this was owing chiefly to their holding the office during life. The property, character, and life of every man was in their disposal. He who incurred the displeasure of one of that order, found an enemy in every one of them; nor were accusers wanting in a court where the justices were disposed to condemn. While they were in possession of this despotism, (for they did not exercise their exorbitant power constitutionally,) Hannibal was elected praetor and he summoned the quaestor before him. The quaestor disregarded the summons, for he was of the opposite faction; and besides, as the practice was that, after the quaestorship men were advanced into the order of judges, the most powerful of all, he already assumed a spirit suited to the powers which he was shortly to possess. Hannibal, highly offended Hereat, sent an officer to apprehend the quaestor; and, bringing him forth into an assembly of the people, he made heavy charges not against him alone, but on the whole order of judges; in consequence of whose arrogance and power neither the magistracy nor the laws availed any thing. Then perceiving that his discourse was with willing ears attended to, and that the conduct of those men was incompatible with the freedom of the lowest classes, he proposed a law, and procured it to be enacted, that the "judges should be elected annually; and that no person should hold the office two years successively." But, whatever degree of favour he acquired among the commons by this proceeding, he roused, in a great part of the nobility, an equal degree of resentment. To this he added another act, which, while it was for the advantage of the people, provoked personal enmity against himself. The public revenues were partly wasted through neglect, partly embezzled, and divided among some leading men and magistrates; insomuch, that there was not money sufficient for the regular annual payment of the tribute to the Romans, so that private persons seemed to be threatened with a heavy tax.
When Hannibal had informed himself of the amount of the revenues arising from taxes and port duties, for what purposes they were issued from the treasury, what proportion of them was consumed by the ordinary expenses of the state, and how much was alienated by embezzlement; he asserted in an assembly of the people, that if payment were enforced of the residuary funds, the taxes might be remitted to the subjects; and that the state would still be rich enough to pay the tribute to the Romans: which assertion he proved to be true. But now those persons who, for several years past, had maintained themselves by plundering the public, were greatly enraged; as if this were ravishing from them their own property, and not as dragging out of their hands their ill-gotten spoil. Accordingly, they instigated the Romans against Hannibal, who were seeking a pretext for indulging their hatred against him. A strenuous opposition was, however, for a long time made to this by Scipio Africanus, who thought it highly unbecoming the dignity of the Roman people to make themselves a party in the animosities and charges against Hannibal; to interpose the public authority among factions of the Carthaginians, not deeming it sufficient to have conquered that commander in the field, but to become as it were his prosecutors[28] in a judicial process, and preferring an action against him. Yet at length the point was carried, that an embassy should be sent to Carthage to represent to the senate there, that Hannibal, in concert with king Antiochus, was forming plans for kindling a war. Three ambassadors were sent, Caius Servilius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Quintus Terentius Culleo. These, when they had arrived at Carthage, by the advice of Hannibal's enemies, ordered, that any who inquired the cause of their coming should be told, that they came to determine the disputes subsisting between the Carthaginians and Masinissa, king of Numidia; and this was generally believed. But Hannibal was not ignorant that he was the sole object aimed at by the Romans; and that, though they had granted peace to the Carthaginians, their war against him, individually, remained irreconcilable. He therefore determined to give way to fortune and the times; and having already made every preparation for flight, he showed himself that day in the forum, in order to guard against suspicion; and, as soon as it grew dark, went in his common dress to one of the gates, with his two attendants, who knew nothing of his intention.
Finding horses in readiness at a spot where he had ordered, he traversed by night a district which the Africans denominated Byzacium, and arrived, in the morning of the following day, at a castle of his own between Acholla and Thapsus. There a ship, ready fitted out and furnished with rowers, took him on board. In this manner did Hannibal leave Africa, lamenting the misfortunes of his country oftener than his own. He sailed over, the same day, to the island of Cercina, where he found in the port a number of merchant ships, belonging to the Phoenicians, with their cargoes; and on landing was surrounded by a concourse of people, who came to pay their respects to him; on which he gave orders that, in answer to any inquiries, it should be said that he had been sent as ambassador to Tyre. Fearing, however, lest some of these ships might sail in the night to Thapsus or Adrumetum, and carry information of his having been seen at Cercina, he ordered a sacrifice to be prepared, and the masters of the ships, with the merchants, to be invited to the entertainment, and that the sails and yards should be collected out of the ships to form a shade on shore for the company at supper, as it happened to be the middle of summer. The feast of the day was as sumptuous, and well attended, as the time and circumstances allowed; and the entertainment was prolonged, with plenty of wine, until late in the night. As soon as Hannibal saw an opportunity of escaping the notice of those who were in the harbour, he set sail. The rest were fast asleep, nor was it early, next day, when they arose from their sleep, full of the illness of intoxication; and then, when it was too late, they set about replacing the sails in the ships, and fitting up the rigging, which employed several hours. At Carthage, those who were accustomed to visit Hannibal met in a crowd, at the porch of his house; and when it was publicly known that he was not to be found, the whole multitude assembled in the forum, eager to gain intelligence of the man who was considered as the first in the state. Some surmised that he had fled, as the case was; others, that he had been put to death through the treachery of the Romans; and there was visible in the expression of their countenances, that variety which might naturally be expected in a state divided into factions, whereof each supported a different interest. At length intelligence was brought, that he had been seen at Cercina.
The Roman ambassadors represented to the council, that "proof had been laid before the senate at Rome, that formerly king Philip had been moved, principally by the instigation of Hannibal, to make war on the Roman people; and that lately, Hannibal had, besides, sent letters and messages to king Antiochus, that he had entered into plans for driving Carthage to revolt, and that he had now gone no whither but to king Antiochus. That he was a man who would never be content, until he had excited war in every part of the globe. That such conduct ought not to be suffered to pass with impunity, if the Carthaginians wished to convince the Roman people that none of those things were done with their consent, or with the approbation of the state." The Carthaginians answered, that they were ready to do whatever the Romans required them.
Hannibal, after a prosperous voyage, arrived at Tyre; where, as a man illustrated by every description of honours, he was received by those founders of Carthage, as if in a second native country, and here he staid a few days. He then sailed to Antioch; where, hearing that the king had already left the place, he procured an interview with his son, who was celebrating the solemnity of the games at Daphne, and who treated him with much kindness; after which, he set sail without delay. At Ephesus, he overtook the king, who was still hesitating in his mind, and undetermined respecting a war with Rome: but the arrival of Hannibal proved an incentive of no small efficacy to the prosecution of that design. At the same time, the inclinations of the Aetolians also were alienated from the Roman alliance in consequence of the senate having referred to Quinctius their ambassadors, who demanded Pharsalus and Leucas, and some other cities, in conformity with the first treaty.
Amid the serious concerns of important wars, either scarcely brought to a close or impending, an incident intervened, trivial indeed to be mentioned, but which, through the zeal of the parties concerned, issued in a violent contest. Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius, plebeian tribunes, proposed to the people the repealing of the Oppian law. This law, which had been introduced by Caius Oppias, plebeian tribune, in the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius, during the heat of the Punic war, enacted that "no woman should possess more than half an ounce of gold, or wear a garment of various colours, 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 public religious solemnity." Marcus and Publius Junius Brutus, plebeian tribunes, supported the Oppian law, and declared, that they would never suffer it to be repealed; while many of the nobility stood forth to argue for and against the motion proposed. The Capitol was filled with crowds, who favoured 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 pass 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 come up to the consuls, praetors, and magistrates, to urge their request. One of the consuls, however, they found especially inexorable--Marcus Porcius Cato, who, in support of the law proposed to be repealed, spoke to this effect:--
"If, Romans, every individual among us had made it a rule to maintain the prerogative and authority of a husband with respect to his own wife, we should have less trouble with the whole sex. But now, our privileges, 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 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, yourselves, my fellow-citizens. For, whether the measure proposed to your consideration be profitable to the state or not, is to be determined by you, who are about to go to the vote. As to the outrageous behaviour of these women, whether it be merely an act of their own, or owing to your instigations, Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius, it unquestionably implies culpable conduct in magistrates. I know not whether it reflects greater disgrace on you, tribunes, or on the consuls: on you certainly, if you have, on the present occasion, brought these women hither for the purpose of raising tribunitian seditions; on us, if we suffer laws to be imposed on us by a secession of women, as was done formerly by that of the common people. 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, besetting 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. For 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, even with the help of all these restrictions, you can scarcely keep them within bounds. If, then, you suffer them to throw these 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 tolerable by you? The moment they have arrived at an equality with you, they will have become your superiors. But, forsooth, they only object to any new law being made against them: they mean to deprecate, not justice, but severity. Nay, their wish is, that a law which you have admitted, established by your suffrages, and confirmed by the practice and experience of so many years to be beneficial, should now be repealed; that is, that, by abolishing one law, you should weaken all the rest. No law perfectly suits the convenience of every member of the community: the only consideration is, whether, upon the whole, it be profitable to the greater part. If because a law proves obnoxious to a private individual, that circumstance should destroy and sweep it away, to what purpose is it for the community to enact general laws, which those, with reference to whom they were passed, could presently repeal? 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 restraining 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 Idaean Mother, coming out of Phrygia from Pessinus! 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. Believe me, those statues from Syracuse were brought into this city with hostile effect. I already hear too many commending and admiring the decorations of Athens and Corinth, and ridiculing the earthen images of our Roman gods that stand on the fronts of their temples. For my part I prefer these gods,--propitious as they are, and I hope will continue to be, if we allow them to remain in their own mansions. In the memory of our fathers, Pyrrhus, by his ambassador Cineas, made trial of the dispositions, not only of our men, but of our women also, by offers of presents: at that time the Oppian law, for restraining female luxury, had not been made; and yet not one woman accepted a present. What, think you, was the reason? That for which our ancestors made no provision by law on this subject: there was no luxury existing which needed to be restrained. As diseases must necessarily be known before their remedies, so passions come into being before the laws which prescribe limits to them. What called forth the Licinian law, restricting estates to five hundred acres, but the unbounded desire for enlarging estates? What the Cincian law, concerning gifts and presents, but that the plebeians[29] had become vassals and tributaries to the senate? It is not therefore in any degree surprising, that no want of the Oppian law, or of any other, to limit the expenses of the women, was felt at that time, when they refused to receive gold and purple that was thrown in their way, and offered to their acceptance. If Cineas were now to go round the city with his presents, he would find numbers of women standing in the public streets to receive them. There are some passions, the causes or motives of which I can no way account for. For that that should not be lawful for you which is permitted to another, may perhaps naturally excite some degree of shame or indignation; yet, when the dress of all is alike, why should any one of you fear, lest she should not be an object of observation? Of all kinds of shame, the worst, surely, is the being ashamed of frugality or of poverty; but the law relieves you with regard to both; since that which you have not it is unlawful for you to possess. This equalization, says the rich matron, is the very thing that I cannot endure. Why do not I make a figure, distinguished with gold and purple? Why is the poverty of others concealed under this cover of a law, so that it should be thought that, if the law permitted, they would have such things as they are not now able to procure? Romans, do you wish to excite among your wives an emulation of this sort, that the rich should wish to have what no other can have; and that the poor, lest they should be despised as such should extend their expenses beyond their means? Be assured, that when a woman once begins to be ashamed of what she ought not to be ashamed of, she will not be ashamed of what she ought. She who can, will purchase out of her own purse; she who cannot, will ask her husband. Unhappy is the husband, both he who complies with the request, and he who does not; for what he will not give himself, he will see given by another. Now, they openly solicit favours from other women's husbands; and, what is more, solicit a law and votes. From some they obtain them; although, with regard to yourself, your property, or your children, they would be inexorable. So soon as the law shall cease to limit the expenses of your wife, you yourself will never be able to do so. 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, 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, sometimes, 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, for the purpose of exaggeration, are easily found; 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,[30] and quote them against you. Hear, now how often they have done the same, and always to the advantage of the public. In the earliest period of our history, even in the reign of Romulus, when the Capitol had been taken by the Sabines, and a pitched battle was fought in the forum, was not the fight stopped by the interposition of the matrons between the two armies? When, after the expulsion of the kings, the legions of the Volscians, under the command of Marcius Coriolanus, were encamped at the fifth stone, did not the matrons turn away that army, which would have overwhelmed this city? Again, when Rome was taken by the Gauls, whence was the city ransomed? Did not the matrons, by unanimous agreement, bring their gold into the public treasury? In the late war, not to go back to remote antiquity, when there was a want of money, did not the funds of the widows supply the treasury? And when even new gods were invited hither to the relief of our distressed affairs, did not the matrons go out in a body to the sea-shore to receive the Idaean Mother? The cases, you will say, are dissimilar. It is not my purpose to produce similar instances; it is sufficient that I clear these women of having done any thing new. Now, what nobody wondered at their doing in cases which concerned all in common, both men and women, can we wonder at their doing in a case peculiarly affecting themselves? But what have they done? We have proud ears, truly, if, though masters disdain not the prayers of slaves, we are offended at being asked a favour by honourable women.
"I come now to the question in debate, with respect to which the consul's argument is twofold: for, first, he is displeased at the thought of any law whatever being repealed; and then, particularly, of that law which was made to restrain female luxury. His former argument, in support of the laws in general, appeared highly becoming of a consul; and that on the latter, against luxury, was quite conformable to the rigid strictness of his morals. There is, therefore, a danger lest, unless I shall show what, on each subject, was inconclusive, you may probably be led away by error. For while I acknowledge, that of those laws which are instituted, not for any particular time, but for eternity, on account of their perpetual utility, not one ought to be repealed; unless either experience evince it to be useless, or some state of the public affairs render it so; I see, at the same time, that those laws which particular seasons have required, are mortal, (if I may use the term,) and changeable with the times. Those made in peace are generally repealed by war; those made in war, by peace; as in the management of a ship, some implements are useful in good weather, others in bad. As these two kinds are thus distinct in their nature, of which kind does that law appear to be which we now propose to repeal? Is it an ancient law of the kings, coeval with the city itself? Or, what is next to that, was it written in the twelve tables by the decemvirs, appointed to form a code of laws? Is it one, without which our ancestors thought that the honour of the female sex could not be preserved? and, therefore, have we also reason to fear, that, together with it, we should repeal the modesty and chastity of our females? Now, is there a man among you who does not know that this is a new law, passed not more than twenty years ago, in the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius? And as, without it, our matrons sustained, for such a number of years, the most virtuous characters, what danger is there of their abandoning themselves to luxury on its being repealed? For, if that law had been passed for the purpose of setting a limit to the passions of the sex, there would be reason to fear lest the repeal of it might operate as an incitement to them. But the real reason of its being passed, the time itself will show Hannibal was then in Italy, victorious at Cannae: he already held possession of Tarentum, of Arpi, of Capua, and seemed ready to bring up his army to the city of Rome. Our allies had deserted us. We had neither soldiers to fill up the legions, nor seamen to man the fleet, nor money in the treasury. Slaves, who were to be employed as soldiers, were purchased on condition of their price being paid to the owners at the end of the war. The farmers of the revenues had declared, that they would contract to supply corn and other matters, which the exigencies of the war required, to be paid for at the same time. We gave up our slaves to the oar, in numbers proportioned to our properties, and paid them out of our own incomes. All our gold and silver, in imitation of the example given by the senators, we dedicated to the use of the public. Widows and minors lodged their money in the treasury. It was provided by law that we should not keep in our houses more than a certain quantity of wrought gold or silver, or more than a certain sum of coined silver or brass. At such a time as this, were the matrons so eagerly engaged in luxury and dress, that the Oppian law was requisite to repress such practices; when the senate, because the sacrifice of Ceres had been omitted, in consequence of all the matrons being in mourning, ordered the mourning to end in thirty days? Who does not clearly see, that the poverty and distress of the state, requiring that every private person's money should be converted to the use of the public, enacted that law, with intent that it should remain in force so long only as the cause of enacting the law should remain? For if all the decrees of the senate and orders of the people, which were then made to answer the necessities of the times, are to be of perpetual obligation, why do we refund their money to private persons? Why do we contract for public works for ready money? Why are not slaves brought to serve in the army? Why do not we, private subjects, supply rowers as we did then?
"Shall, then, every other class of people, every individual, feel the improvement in the condition of the state; and shall our wives alone reap none of the fruits of the public peace and tranquillity? Shall we men have the use of purple, wearing the purple-bordered gown in magistracies and priests' offices? Shall our children wear gowns bordered with purple? Shall we allow the privilege of wearing the toga praetexta to the magistrates of the colonies and borough towns, and to the very lowest of them here at Rome, the superintendents of the streets; and not only of wearing such an ornament of distinction while alive, but of being buried with it when dead; and shall we interdict the use of purple to women alone? And when you, the husband, may wear purple in your great coat, will you not suffer your wife to have a purple mantle? Shall your horse be more splendidly caparisoned than your wife is clothed? But with respect to purple, which will be worn out and consumed, I can see an unjust, indeed, but still a sort of reason, for parsimony; but with respect to gold, in which, excepting the price of the workmanship, there is no waste, what objection can there be? It rather serves as a reserve fund for both public and private exigencies, as you have already experienced. He says there will be no emulation between individuals, when no one is possessed of it. But, in truth, it will be a source of grief and indignation to all, when they see those ornaments allowed to the wives of the Latin confederates of which they themselves have been deprived; when they see those riding through the city in their carriages, and decorated with gold and purple, while they are obliged to follow on foot, as if the seat of empire were in the country of the others, not in their own. This would hurt the feelings even of men, and what do you think must be its effect on those of weak women, whom even trifles can disturb? Neither offices of state, nor of the priesthood, nor triumphs, nor badges of distinction, nor military presents, nor spoils, can fall to their share. Elegance of appearance, and ornaments, and dress, these are the women's badges of distinction; in these they delight and glory; these our ancestors called the women's world. What else do they lay aside when in mourning, except their gold and purple? And what else do they resume when the mourning is over? How do they distinguish themselves on occasion of public thanksgivings and supplications, but by adding unusual splendour of dress? But then, (it may be said,) if you repeal the Oppian law, should you choose to prohibit any of those particulars which the law at present prohibits, you will not have it in your power; your daughters, wives, and even the sisters of some, will be less under control. The bondage of women is never shaken off without the loss of their friends; and they themselves look with horror on that freedom which is purchased with the condition of the widow or the orphan. Their wish is, that their dress should be under your regulation, not under that of the law; and it ought to be your wish to hold them in control and guardianship, not in bondage; and to prefer the title of father or husband to that of master. The consul just now made use of some invidious terms, calling it a female sedition and secession; because, I suppose, there is danger of their seizing the sacred mount, as formerly the angry plebeians did; or the Aventine. Their feeble nature must submit to whatever you think proper to enjoin; and, the greater power you possess, the more moderate ought you to be in the exercise of your authority."