Chap. 36.] INSTANCES OF AFFECTION. 181 



ducing any food. At last, however, she was detected nourish- 

 ing her mother with the milk of her breast; upon which, in 

 consideration of the marvellous affection of the daughter, the 

 mother was pardoned, and they were both maintained for the 

 rest of their days at the public charge ; the spot, too, was 

 consecrated to Piety, a temple to that goddess being built on 

 the site of the prison, in the consulship 31 of C. Quintius and 

 M. Acilius, where the theatre of Marcellus 32 now stands. 



The father of the Gracchi, on finding [two] serpents in his 

 house, consulted the soothsayers, and received an answer to 

 the effect, that he would survive if the serpent of the other 

 sex was put to death. "No," said he, "rather kill the ser- 

 pent of my own sex, for Cornelia is still young, and may 

 yet bear children." 33 Thus did he shew himself ready, at 

 the same moment, to spare his wife and to benefit the state ; 

 and shortly after, his wish was accomplished. M. Lepidus 

 died of regret for his wife, Apuleia, after having been divorced 

 from her. 34 P. Rnpilius, 88 who was at the time affected by a 

 slight disease, instantly expired, upon news being brought to 

 him that his brother had failed in obtaining the consulship. 

 P. Catienus Plotinus was so much attached to his patron, that on 

 finding himself named heir to all his property, he threw him- 

 self on the funeral pile. 



31 A.U.C. 604. 



82 This theatre is again mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 12. It was built of 

 stone, and erected by Augustus in honour of his nephew Marcellus. 



32 This is related by Valerius Maximus, B. v. c. 8, somewhat more in 

 detail, and with a degree of animation, which is not frequently to be met 

 with in that author. B. 



33 Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 18, Val. Maximus, B. iv. c. 6, and Plutarch, 

 relate this more circumstantially. The serpents were of different sexes ; if 

 the male serpent was killed, his own death was to be the consequence ; if 

 the female, that of his wife, Cornelia. B. 



34 Pliny gives an account of the circumstances which attended the death 

 of Lepidus, in the 54th Chapter. He was the father of the triumvir. B. 



35 Or Butilius, consul B.C. 182, the year after the death of Tiberius 

 Gracchus, whose adherents he prosecuted with the greatest cruelty. He 

 also obtained a triumph for bringing to a conclusion the Servile war. He 

 was an intimate friend of the younger Scipio Africanus, who obtained the 

 consulship for him, but failed in gaining that honour for his brother Lucius. 

 About the same period, he was condemned, in the tribuneship of Caius 

 Gracchus, for his illegal acts in the prosecution of the adherents of Tibe- 

 rius Gracchus. It has been suggested that this indignity may have had a 

 greater share than the ill success of his brother in causing his death. 



