nt on which Roman law laid more stress than that the
children, both male and female, were to be constantly protected and must
receive their legal share of their father's or mother's goods. After a
husband's divorce or death his wife could, indeed, enjoy possession of
the property and the usufruct; but the principal had to be conserved
intact for the children until they arrived at maturity. In the same way
a father was obliged to keep untouched for the children whatever had
been left them by the mother on her decease[175]; and he must also leave
them that part, at least, of his own property prescribed by the
Falcidian Law. A case--and it was common enough in real life--such as
that described by Dickens in _David Copperfield_, where, by the English
law, a second husband acquired absolute right over his wife's property
and shut out her son, would have been impossible under Roman law.
Neither husband nor wife could succeed to one another's intestate estate
absolutely unless there were no children, parents, or other relatives
living.[176]

[Sidenote: Punishment of crimes against women.]

Rape of a woman was punished by death; accessories to the crime merited
the same penalty.[177] Indecent exposure before a virgin met with
punishment out of course.[178] Kidnapping was penalised by hard labour
in the mines or by crucifixion in the case of those of humble birth, and
by confiscation of half the goods and by perpetual exile in the case of
a noble.[179] Temporary exile was visited upon those guilty of abortion
themselves[180]; if it was caused through the agency of another, the
agent, even though he or she did so without evil intent, was punished by
hard labour in the mines, if of humble birth, and by relegation to an
island and confiscation of part of their goods, if of noble rank.[181]
If the victim died, the person who caused the abortion was put to
death.[182]

[Sidenote: Rights of women to an education.]

The rights of women to an education were not questioned. That Sulpicia
could publish amatory poems in honour of her husband and receive
eulogies from writers like Martial[183] shows that she and ladies like
her occupied somewhat the same position as Olympia Morata and Tarquinia
Molza later in Italy during the Renaissance, or like some of the
celebrated Frenchwomen, such as Madame de Stael. Seneca addresses a
_Dialogue on Consolation_ to one Marcia; such an idea would have made
the hair of any Athenian gentleman in the t