180 PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTOUT. [Book VIL 



CHAP. 35. (35.) THE MOST CHASTE MATRONS. ' 



Sulpicia, the daughter of Paterculus, and wife of Fulvius 

 Flaccus, has been considered, in the judgment of matrons, to 

 have heen the chastest of women. She was selected from one 

 hundred Eoman ladies, who had been previously named, to 

 dedicate a statue of Yenus, in obedience to the precepts con- 

 tained in the Sibylline books. 28 Again, Claudia gave strong 

 proof of her piety and virtue, on the occasion of the introduc- 

 tion into Borne of the Mother of the gods. 29 



CHAP. 36. (36.) INSTANCES Or THE HIGHEST DEGBEE OF 



AFFECTION. 



Infinite is the number of examples of affection which have 

 been known in all parts of the world ; but one in particular 

 occurred at Home, to which no other can possibly be com- 

 pared. A woman of quite the lower class, and whose name 

 has consequently not come down to us, having lately given 

 birth to a child, obtained permission to visit her mother, 30 who 

 was confined in prison ; but was always carefully searched by 

 the gaoler before being admitted, to prevent her from intro- 



28 We have this anecdote related by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 15. 

 He informs us, that it was the statue of Venus Verticordia which was 

 ordered to be consecrated; the more readily to win the hearts of the 

 maidens and matrons from wanton thoughts to a life of chastity. B. 



29 Her story is told at great length by Ovid, in the Fasti, B. iv. 1. 305, 

 et seq. Her name was Claudia Quinta, and she is supposed to have been 

 the sister of Appius Claudius Pulcher, and grand-daughter of Appius Clau- 

 dius Csecus. The vessel which was conveying the statue of Cybele from 

 Pessinus to Eome having stuck fast on a shallow at the mouth of the Tiber, 

 the soothsayers declared that none but a really chaste woman could move 

 it. Claudia, who had been previously accused of unchastity, being in the 

 number of the matrons who had accompanied Scipio to Ostia to receive the 

 statue, immediately presented herself, and calling upon the goddess to vin- 

 dicate her innocence, seized the rope, and the vessel moved forthwith. A 

 statue was afterwards erected to her in the vestibule of the temple of the 

 goddess. 



30 Solinus and Festus differ somewhat from Pliny, in stating that it 

 was her father whose life was thus saved by the affectionate daughter. 

 Valerius Maximus, who tells the story, says that the family was " ingenui 

 sanguinis," meaning " of genteel origin." Such families were, however, 

 sometimes reduced, even among the Romans, to a level with the plebeian 

 classes. 



