24 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



is but one of many similar instances which might be ad- 

 duced from the lives of the women of Rome who took an 

 active part in politics. As we learn from Tacitus, their 

 counsels and assistance were considered of peculiar value 

 by the Commonwealth. For, when some of the sterner old 

 moralists wished to exclude women from all participation 

 in public affairs, the Senate, after a heated debate, decided 

 by a large majority that the cooperation of women in ques- 

 tions of administration, far from being a menace, as some 

 contended, was so beneficial to the state that it should be 

 continued. 



Among other noteworthy makers of Roman history, be- 

 sides those just mentioned, is Livia, the wife of Augustus 

 and the mother of Tiberius. So great was her influence and 

 so persistent was her activity in government affairs, that 

 it is sometimes asserted that she was the prime mover 

 of most of the public acts of both these rulers. This 

 woman, whom Ovid describes as having the features of 

 Venus and the manner of Juno, and who, he declares, "held 

 her head above all vices, " was credited with having the 

 benevolence of Ceres, the purity of Diana and the wisdom 

 and craft of Minerva "a woman/' as was said by one 

 of her contemporaries, "in all things more comparable to 

 the gods than to men, who knew how to use her power so 

 as to turn away peril and advance the most deserving. * ' 



Then there was the gracious, the virtuous, the self-sac- 

 rificing Octavia, sister of the Emperor Augustus, "who was 

 so successful in composing grave differences between her 

 brother and her husband, and who so exerted her influence 

 for peace during the troublous times in which she lived 

 that she lives in history as a peacemaker. In marked con- 

 trast to this gentle and sympathetic woman was the ener- 

 getic and heroic Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus. In 

 many respects she was the most commanding personality of 

 her age, and exhibited in an eminent degree those sterling 

 qualities which we are wont to associate with the strong, 



