He referred his hearers
to a book of Cato's, [Footnote: Livy is authority for this statement,
but it has been doubted if Cato's book had been written at the time.]
called _Origines_, or "Antiquities," in which it was made clear
that in the old times women had appeared in public, and with good
effect too. "Who rushed into the forum in the days of Romulus, and
stopped the fight with the Sabines?" he asked. "Who went out and turned
back the army of the great Coriolanus? Who brought their gold and
jewels into the forum when the Gauls demanded a great ransom for the
city? Who went out to the sea-shore during the late war to receive the
Id?an mother (Cybele) when new gods were invited hither to relieve our
distresses? Who poured out their riches to supply a depleted treasury
during that same war, now so fresh in memory? Was it not the Roman
matrons? Masters do not disdain to listen to the prayers of their
slaves, and we are asked, forsooth, to shut our ears to the petitions
of our wives!
"I have shown that women have now done no new thing. I will go on and
prove that they ask no unreasonable thing. It is true that good laws
should not be rashly repealed; but we must not forget that Rome existed
for centuries without this one, and that Roman matrons established
their high character, about which Cato is so solicitous, during that
period, the return of which he now seems to think would be subversive
of every thing good.
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