ntive
of its erudition? Or shall I take what is far the best course and,
relying on your learning, Maximus, and your perfect erudition, disdain
to reply to the accusations of these stupid and uncultivated fellows?
Yes, that is what I will do. I will not care a straw for what they may
think. I will go on with the argument on which I had entered and will
show that I had no motive for seducing Pudentilla into marriage by the
use of love philtres.

My accusers have gone out of their way to make disparaging remarks
both about her age and her appearance; they have denounced me for
desiring such a wife from motives of greed and robbing her of her vast
and magnificent dowry at the very outset of our wedded life. I do not
intend to weary you, Maximus, with a long reply on these points. There
is no need for words from me, our deeds of settlement will speak more
eloquently than I can do. From them you will see that both in my
provision for the future and in my action at the time my conduct was
precisely the opposite of that which they have attributed to me,
inferring my rapacity from their own. You will see that Pudentilla's
dowry was small, considering her wealth, and was made over to me as a
trust not as a gift, and moreover that the marriage only took place on
this condition that if my wife should die without leaving me any
children, the dowry should go to her sons Pontianus and Pudens, while
if at her death she should leave me one son or daughter, half of the
dowry was to go to the offspring of the second marriage, the remainder
to the sons of the first.

92. This, as I say, I will prove from the actual deed of settlement.
It may be that Aemilianus will still refuse to believe that the total
sum recorded is only 300,000 sesterces, and that the reversion of this
sum is given by the settlement to Pudentilla's sons. Take the deeds
into your own hands, give them to Rufinus who incited you to this
accusation. Let him read them, let him blush for his arrogant temper
and his pretentious beggary. _He_ is poor and ill-clad and borrowed
400,000 sesterces to dower his daughter, while Pudentilla, a woman of
fortune, was content with 300,000, and her husband, who has often
refused the hand of the richest heiresses, is also content with this
trifling dowry, a mere nominal sum. He cares for nothing save his wife
and counts the mutual love and harmony of his wedded life as his sole
treasure, his only wealth. Who that had the least experienc