A few heard this speech with approval, but
the majority clamorously objected that there was no proper motion on the
subject, and that Cæcina was no fit censor on so grave an issue.
Presently Valerius Messalinus, Messala's son, in whom the father's eloquence
was reproduced, replied that much of the sternness of antiquity had been
changed into a better and more genial system. "
Rome," he said, "is not
WIVES OF
PROVINCIAL GOVERNORS |
now, as formerly, beset with wars, nor are the
provinces hostile. A few concessions are made to the wants of women but such
as are not even a burden to their husbands' homes, much less to the allies.
In all other respects man and wife share alike, and this arrangement
involves no trouble in peace. War of course requires that men should be
unincumbered, but when they return what worthier solace can they have after
their hardships than a wife's society? But some wives have abandoned
themselves to scheming and rapacity. Well; even among our magistrates, are
not many subject to various passions? Still, that is not a reason for
sending no one into a province. Husbands have often been corrupted by the
vices of their wives. Are then all unmarried men blameless? The Oppian laws
were formerly adopted to meet the political necessities of the time, and
subsequently there was some remission and mitigation of them on grounds of
expediency. It is idle to shelter our own weakness under other names; for it
is the husband's fault if the wife transgresses propriety. Besides, it is
wrong that because of the imbecility of one or two men, all husbands should
be cut off from their partners in prosperity and adversity. And further, a
sex naturally weak will be thus left to itself and be at the mercy of its
own voluptuousness and the passions of others. Even with the husband's
personal vigilance the marriage tie is scarcely preserved inviolate. What
would happen were it for a number of years to be forgotten, just as in a
divorce? You must not check vices abroad without remembering the scandals of
the capital."
Drusus added a few words on his own experience as a
husband. "Princes," he said, "must often visit the extremities of their
empire. How often had the Divine Augustus travelled to the West and to the
East accompanied by Livia? He had himself gone to
Illyricum and, should it be expedient, he would go to
other countries, not always however with a contented mind, if he had to tear
himself from a much loved wife, the mother of his many children."