CHAPTER XI 



WOMEN AS INSPIREBS AND COLLABOKATOKS IN SCIENCE 



One of the most interesting literary figures of the fifth 

 century was Caius Apollinaris Sidonius, who, after holding 

 a number of important civil offices, became the bishop of 

 Clermont. The most valuable of his extant works are his 

 nine books of letters which are a mine of information 

 respecting the history of his age and the manners, customs 

 and ideals of his contemporaries. 



In one of these letters, addressed to Hesperius, a young 

 friend of his who exhibited special talent in polite liter- 

 ature, he expresses a sentiment which applies as well to 

 the votary of science as to the man of letters. Referring 

 to the assistance which women had given to their husbands 

 and friends in their studies, he conjures him to remember 

 that in days of old it was the wont of Martia, Terentia, 

 Calpurnia, Pudentilla and Rusticana to hold the lamp 

 while their husbands, Hortensius, Cicero, Pliny, Apuleius 

 and Symmachus, were reading and meditating. 1 



This picture of women as light-bearers to the great ora- 

 tors and philosophers just named is symbolic of them as 

 the helpmates and inspirers of men in every field of human 

 activity and in every age of the world's history. Always 

 and everywhere, when permitted to occupy the same social 

 plane as men, women have been not only as lamps unto the 



i Sis oppido meminens quod olim Martia Hortensio, Terentia 

 Tullio, Calpurnia Plinio, Pudentilla Apuleio, Kusticana Symmacho 

 legentibus meditantibusque candelas and candelabra tenuerunt. Lib. 

 II, Epist. 10. 



356 



