History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume II Part 49

629 Martial, xi. 16. Pliny, _Ep._ i. 14.

630 Suet. _Tiberius_, xlv.

631 Plutarch, _Brutus_.

632 Tacit. _Annal._ xv. 63, 64.

633 "Paete, non dolet."-Plin. _Ep._ iii. 16; Martial, _Ep._ i. 14.

634 Tacit. _Annal._ xvi. 10-11; _Hist._ i. 3. See, too, Friedlander, tome i. p. 406.

635 Tacit. _Ann._ xvi. 34.

636 Pliny mentions her return after the death of the tyrant (_Ep._ iii.

11).

637 "Quod paucis datum est, non minus amabilis quam veneranda."-Plin.

_Ep._ vii. 19.

638 See Plin. _Ep._ vii. 19. Dion Ca.s.sius and Tacitus relate the exiles of Helvidius, who appears to have been rather intemperate and unreasonable.

639 Friedlander gives many and most touching examples, tome i. pp.

410-414.

640 Suet. _Dom._ viii.

641 Capitolinus, _Macrinus_.

642 Lampridius, _A. Severus_.

643 In the oration against Neaera, which is ascribed to Demosthenes, but is of doubtful genuineness, the licence accorded to husbands is spoken of as a matter of course: "We keep mistresses for our pleasures, concubines for constant attendance, and wives to bear us legitimate children, and to be our faithful housekeepers."

644 There is a remarkable pa.s.sage on the feelings of wives, in different nations, upon this point, in Athenaeus, xiii. 3. See, too, Plutarch, _Conj. Praec._

645 Euripid. _Andromache_.

646 Valer. Max. vi. 7, -- 1. Some very scandalous instances of cynicism on the part of Roman husbands are recorded. Thus, Augustus had many mistresses, "Quae [virgines] sibi undique etiam _ab uxore_ conquirerentur."-Sueton. _Aug._ lxxi. When the wife of Verus, the colleague of Marcus Aurelius, complained of the tastes of her husband, he answered, "Uxor enim dignitatis nomen est, non voluptatis."-Spartian. _Verus_.

647 Aristotle, _Econom._ i. 4-8-9.

648 Plutarch enforces the duty at length, in his very beautiful work on marriage. In case husbands are guilty of infidelity, he recommends their wives to preserve a prudent blindness, reflecting that it is out of respect for them that they choose another woman as the companion of their intemperance. Seneca touches briefly, but unequivocally, on the subject: "Scis improb.u.m esse qui ab uxore pudicitiam exigit, ipse alienarum corruptor uxorum. Scis ut illi nil c.u.m adultero, sic nihil tibi esse debere c.u.m pellice."-_Ep._ xciv.

"Sciet in uxorem gravissimum esse genus injuriae, habere pellicem."-_Ep._ xcv.

649 "Periniquum enim videtur esse, ut pudicitiam vir ab uxore exigat, quam ipse non exhibeat."-_Cod. Just. Dig._ xlviii. 5-13.

650 Quoted by St. Augustine, _De Conj. Adult._ ii. 19. Plautus, long before, had made one of his characters complain of the injustice of the laws which punished unchaste wives but not unchaste husbands, and ask why, since every honest woman is contented with one husband, every honest man should not be contented with one wife? (_Mercator_, Act iv. scene 5.)

651 Horace, _Sat._ i. 2.

652 "Verum si quis est qui etiam meretriciis amoribus interdictum juventuti putet, est ille quidem valde severus; negare non possum; sed abhorret non modo ab hujus saeculi licentia, verum etiam a majorum consuetudine atque concessis. Quando enim hoc factum non est? Quando reprehensum? Quando non permissum? Quando denique fuit ut quod licet non liceret?"-Cicero, _Pro Caelio_, cap. xx. The whole speech is well worthy of the attention of those who would understand Roman feelings on these matters; but it should be remembered that it is the speech of a lawyer defending a dissolute client.

653 ?e?? ?f??d?s?a, e?? d??a?? p?? ???? ?a?a?e?t???. ?pt???? d?, ??

????? ?st?, eta??pt???, ? ?? t?? ?pa???? ????? t??? ????????, ?d? ??e??t????, ?d? p???a??? t?, ?t? a?t?? ?? ???, pa??fe?e.-_Enchir._ x.x.xiii.

654 "Et si uxores non haberent, singulas concubinas, quod sine his esse non possent."-Lampridius, _A. Severus_. We have an amusing picture of the common tone of people of the world on this matter, in the speech Apuleius puts into the mouth of the G.o.ds, remonstrating with Venus for being angry because her son formed a connection with Psyche. (_Metam._ lib. v.)

655 Preserved by Stobaeus. See Denis, _Hist. des Idees morales dans l'Antiquite_, tome ii. pp. 134-136, 149-150.

656 Philos. _Apol._ i. 13. When a saying of Pythagoras, "that a man should only have commerce with his own wife," was quoted, he said that this concerned others.

657 Trebellius Pollio, _Zen.o.bia_.

658 This is a.s.serted by an anonymous writer quoted by Suidas. See Menage, _Hist. Mulierum Philosopharum_, p. 58.

659 See, e.g., Plotinus, 1st Eun. vi. 6.

660 Capitolinus, _M. Aurelius_.

661 Amm. Marcell. xxv. 4.

_ 662 Cod. Theod._ lib. ix. t.i.t. 24.

_ 663 Cod. Theod._ lib. xv. t.i.t. 7.

664 "Fidicinam nulli liceat vel emere vel docere vel vendere, vel conviviis aut spectaculis adhibere. Nec cuiquam aut delectationis desiderio erudita feminea aut musicae artis studio liceat habere mancipia."-_Cod. Theod._ xv. 7, 10. This curious law was issued in A.D. 385. St. Jerome said these musicians were the chorus of the devil, and quite as dangerous as the sirens. See the comments on the law.

665 Ruinart, _Act. S. Perpetuae_. These acts, are, I believe, generally regarded as authentic. There is nothing more instructive in history than to trace the same moral feelings through different ages and religions; and I am able in this case to present the reader with an ill.u.s.tration of their permanence, which I think somewhat remarkable.

The younger Pliny gives in one of his letters a pathetic account of the execution of Cornelia, a vestal virgin, by the order of Domitian. She was buried alive for incest; but her innocence appears to have been generally believed; and she had been condemned unheard, and in her absence. As she was being lowered into the subterranean cell her dress was caught and deranged in the descent. She turned round and drew it to her, and when the executioner stretched out his hand to a.s.sist her, she started back lest he should touch her, for this, according to the received opinion, was a pollution; and even in the supreme moment of her agony her vestal purity shrank from the unholy contact. (Plin. _Ep._ iv. 11.) If we now pa.s.s back several centuries, we find Euripides attributing to Polyxena a trait precisely similar to that which was attributed to Perpetua. As she fell beneath the sword of the executioner, it was observed that her last care was that she might fall with decency.

? d? ?a? ???s???s? ??? p????? p?????a? e??e? e?s???? pese??, ???pt??s? ? ???pte?? ?at? ??s???? ??e??.

Euripides, _Hec._ 566-68.

_ 666 Vita Pauli._

667 St. Ambrose relates an instance of this, which he says occurred at Antioch (_De Virginibus_, lib. ii. cap. iv.). When the Christian youth was being led to execution, the girl whom he had saved reappeared and died with him. Eusebius tells a very similar story, but places the scene at Alexandria.

668 See Ceillier, _Hist. des Auteurs eccles._ tome iii. p. 523.

669 Ibid. tome viii. pp. 204-207.

670 Among the Irish saints St. Colman is said to have had a girdle which would only meet around the chaste, and which was long preserved in Ireland as a relic (Colgan, _Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae_, Louvain, 1645, vol. i. p. 246); and St. Fursaeus a girdle that extinguished l.u.s.t. (Ibid. p. 292.) The girdle of St. Thomas Aquinas seems to have had some miraculous properties of this kind. (See his _Life_ in the Bollandists, Sept. 29.) Among both the Greeks and Romans it was customary for the bride to be girt with a girdle which the bridegroom unloosed in the nuptial bed, and hence "zonam solvere"

became a proverbial expression for "pudicitiam mulieris imminuere."

(Nieupoort, _De Ritibus Romanorum_, p. 479; Alexander's _History of Women_, vol. ii. p. 300.)

_ 671 Vit. St. Pachom._ (Rosweyde).

672 See his _Life_, by Gregory of Nyssa.