quite
two-thirds of an English acre. At the same time it was nearly three
times as large as the Greek [Greek: plethros] such by the fault of
fortune and not by his own. You assumed the manly gown, which you soon
made a womanly one: at first a public prostitute, with a regular price
for your wickedness, and that not a low one. But very soon Curio
stepped in, who carried you off from your public trade, and, as if he
had bestowed a matron's robe upon you, settled you in a steady and
durable wedlock. No boy bought for the gratification of passion was
ever so wholly in the power of his master as you were in Curio's. How
often has his father turned you out of his house? How often has he
placed guards to prevent you from entering? while you, with night
for your accomplice, lust for your encourager, and wages for your
compeller, were let down through the roof. That house could no longer
endure your wickedness. Do you not know that I am speaking of matters
with which I am thoroughly acquainted? Remember that time when Curio,
the father, lay weeping in his bed; his son throwing himself at my
feet with tears recommended to me you; he entreated me to defend you
against his own father, if he demanded six millions of sesterces of
you; for that he had been bail for you to that amount. And he himself,
burning with love, declared positively that because he was unable
to bear the misery of being separated from you, he should go into
banishment. And at that time what misery of that most nourishing
family did I allay, or rather did I remove! I persuaded the father to
pay the son's debts; to release the young man, endowed as he was with
great promise of courage and ability, by the sacrifice of part of his
family estate; and to use his privileges and authority as a father
to prohibit him not only from all intimacy with, but from every
opportunity of meeting you. When you recollected that all this was
done by me, would you have dared to provoke me by abuse if you had not
been trusting to those swords which we behold?]

[Footnote 15: Sisapo was a town in Spain, celebrated for some mines of
vermilion, which were farmed by a company.]

[Footnote 16: She was a courtesan who had been enfranchised by her
master Volumnius. The name of Volumnia was dear to the Romans as that
of the wife of Coriolanus, to whose entreaties he had yielded when he
drew off his army from the neighbourhood of Rome.]

[Footnote 17: This is a play on the name Hippia, as