WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE 27 



used to living out of the sunshine," and that, too, among 

 a people that habitually lived out of doors. We have 

 already seen how much greater freedom Roman women en- 

 joyed and how much more important was the role they 

 played in public as well as private life; but we have not 

 told all. They not only went to, but presided over, public 

 games and religious ceremonies. They were admitted to 

 aristocratic clubs and had, under the empire, a regular 

 assembly or senate of their own, known as the Conventus 

 Matronarum. Hortensia, the daughter of the great orator 

 Hortensius, pleaded the cause of her sex before the tribu- 

 nal of the triumvirs, and so eloquent and effective was her 

 speech that she not only won her case, but also won the 

 praise of the critic, Quintilian, for her splendid oratorical 

 effort. 



Yet more. A certain woman in the Roman possessions 

 in Africa had so impressed her fellow citizens by her intel- 

 lectual capacity and administrative ability that she was 

 chosen as one of the two chief magistrates of the place. 

 She is known in history as Messia Castula, duumvira. It 

 is true that the men of the older school, who would limit 

 woman's activities to the distaff and the loom, strongly 

 objected to the increasing freedom and power of women, 

 and endeavored to counteract their influence; but all to 

 no purpose. And it was the crabbed old Cato, the Censor, 

 who growled in undisguised disgust : * ' We Romans rule 

 over all men and our wives rule over us." 



But great as were the freedom and educational advan- 

 tages of the Roman women, the startling fact remains that, 

 with the exception of a few fragmentary verses of slight 

 merit and of questionable authenticity, we have absolutely 

 no tangible evidence of the Roman woman's literary abil- 

 ity while under pagan influence. We have seen, in con- 

 sidering her intellectual attainments especially after the 

 introduction of Greek art and letters into the City of the 



