'tvi 



DISCOVERY 



lisc f.)r later scholars to add. Hut «n the literary side 

 of the inscription — in other words, on its interest as a 

 record of human character and feeling — he has not a 

 word to say. It was quite characteristic of the great 

 Prussian to feel no interest in that. Not the least of 

 the services rendered to letters by the late Dr. VVarde 

 lowler was the chapter in his Social Life at Rome in 

 which he dealt with the inscription from this point of 

 \iew ; and to this the reader may be referred for 

 further details. 



The inscription from which I will now translate a 

 few paragraphs was erected by Vispullo himself in 

 memory of his wife when she died, after they had 

 enjoved many years of life together under the firm 

 but peaceful rule of the mature Augustus. The 

 inscription is written in praise of the dead lady, but 

 it differs in a characteristic way from other ancient 

 sepulchral eulogies in that it is addressed, not to the 

 passer-by, nor to the public, nor to the family of the 

 dead or of the speaker, but to the dead lady herself ; 

 so that it has an intimate tone very unlike that of a 

 fimeral speech. 



" Such long union as we enjoyed, ended only by 

 death, is rare, for we lived happily together for forty- 

 one years, and you left me only to wish that the parting 

 had come by my death and not by yours, as would, 

 indeed, have been natural since I was the elder. I need 

 not speak of all the good qualities which you shared 

 with other true wives, your faithfulness, obedience, 

 courtesy, and good humour ; your assiduity in spinning 

 and weaving, your religion without superstition, 

 your inconspicuous dress and modest way of life, your 

 affection for your own family, your kindness to your 

 household, which you extended as much to my mother 

 as to your own parents. But some qualities I must 

 claim as having been peculiarly your own, and they 

 are such as Fortune has made rare in human experi- 

 ence." 



He then mentions various examples of her liberality 

 and her administrative powers ; and proceeds to de- 

 scribe how she had saved him on two separate 

 occasions in the Civil War. The first appears to have 

 been in 48 B.C., when Vispullo left Italy to join Pompey 

 when he fled to Pharsalia ; Vispullo was then put in 

 command of Pompey 's fleet in the Adriatic, which in 

 vain attempted to prevent Cajsar's crossing. On this 

 occasion Turia gave him all her pearls and pereonal 

 ornaments, and not only continued to send him fresh 

 supplies from the estate, but defended the house first 

 from a troop of Julius Caisar's army — until Cffisar 

 called them off ; and then a year later (47 B.C.) from 

 what seems to have been a siege by Milo, who was then 

 wandering about the South of Italy with a band of 

 cut -throats. This incident is related on what survives 

 of the fragment most recently discovered. Of his own 



later deliverance and his wife's share in it Vispullo 

 writes thus : 



" I can hardly persuade myself to bring into the light 

 of day our dearest and most treasured memories, by 

 telling how I was saved by a sudden message which 

 you sent me warning me of pressing danger ; you 

 refused to let me make the rash attempt to escape 

 from Italv, and persuaded me to adopt wiser counsels ; 

 you prepared for me a safe hiding-place, taking your 

 sister and her husband into the secret, though thus 

 they also took a share in my danger. I could not tell 

 the whole story if I tried. It is enough to record that 

 you saved ' me. But I will confess that the bitterest 

 experience I ever suffered was after my restoration 

 had been granted by the generous decision of Augustus 

 Caesar, at a time when he was absent from Rome. 

 For then you boldly requested his colleague Marcus 

 Lepidus, who was in Rome, to carry out my restoration. 

 But when you bowed before Lepidus he not merely re- 

 fused to lift you up, but ordered you to be dragged away 

 and hustled and beaten like a slave. Your courage 

 was not subdued and \'ou forced him to recognise 

 Ciesar's edict, openly protesting against his insult, so 

 that the world might know who had been the author 

 of the danger in which I stood. And it was not long 

 before that author had reason to regret what he had 

 done. . . . When peace was restored to the world 

 and quiet government re-established, happy times fell 

 to us too. We longed for children, which Fortune for a 

 time had grudged us. And if only Fortune had con- 

 tinued the kindness which she began to show, we should 

 have lacked no happiness ; but her decree was other- 

 wise." 



Vispullo then passed to what seems to have struck 

 him as one of the greatest of his wife's virtues, and we 

 can at least realise the unselfishness of her attitude. 

 From the phrase which follows we gather that they lost 

 their only daughter soon after she was born ; some 

 years after that Turia made to her husband the 

 proposal that he should divorce her in order to marry 

 some wife who might bear him children, promising 

 that she would treat the new wife like a sister and her 

 children as if they were her own kin. Whatever we 

 may think of this suggestion, Vispullo knew quite well 

 what he thought. " I must confess that I was almost 

 out of my mind to think that any divorce between us 

 could be made except by death ; that you should 

 dream of ceasing to be my wife while \-ou still li\ed, 

 when you had been faithful to me all the }-ears during 

 which I had been almost a banished man. What desire 

 or need had I of children that I should break my faith 



> This reticence is interesting. Vispullo seems to have felt 

 that the actual details of his concealment would be out of 

 harmony with the dignified grace of this record, which was to be 

 engraved on marble. 



