ns had requested of you, in
the public streets, that, in this time of peace, when the commonwealth
is flourishing and happy, you would repeal a law that was made against
them during a war, and in times of distress. I know that these and
other similar strong expressions, for the purpose of exaggeration, are
easily found; and, mild as Marcus Cato is in his disposition, yet in
his speeches he is not only vehement, but sometimes even austere. What
new thing, let me ask, have the matrons done in coming out into public
in a body on an occasion which nearly concerns themselves? Have
they never before appeared in public? I will turn over your own
Antiquities,[1] and quote them against you. Hear, now how often they
have done the same, and always to the advantage of the public. In the
earliest period of our history, even in the reign of Romulus, when the
Capitol had been taken by the Sabines, and a pitched battle was fought
in the forum, was not the fight stopped by the interposition of the
matrons between the two armies? When, after the expulsion of the
kings, the legions of the Volscians, under the command of Marcius
Coriolanus, were encamped at the fifth stone, did not the matrons turn
away that army, which would have overwhelmed this city? Again, when
Rome was taken by the Gauls, whence was the city ransomed? Did not
the matrons, by unanimous agreement, bring their gold into the public
treasury? In the late war, not to go back to remote antiquity, when
there was a want of money, did not the funds of the widows supply the
treasury? And when even new gods were invited hither to the relief of
our distressed affairs, did not the matrons go out in a body to the
sea-shore to receive the Idaean Mother? The cases, you will say, are
dissimilar. It is not my purpose to produce similar instances; it is
sufficient that I clear these women of having done any thing new. Now,
what nobody wondered at their doing in cases which concerned all in
common, both men and women, can we wonder at their doing in a case
peculiarly affecting themselves? But what have they done? We have
proud ears, truly, if, though masters disdain not the prayers of
slaves, we are offended at being asked a favour by honourable women.

[Footnote 1: Alluding to a treatise by Cato, upon the antiquities of
Italy, entitled "Origines," which is the word used here by Valerius.]

6. "I come now to the question in debate, with respect to which the
consul's argument is twofold: