180 
pliiJ^t's i^atxjeal history. [Book VII. 
CHAP. 35. ,435.) THE MOST CHASTE MATRONS. 
Sulpicia, the daughter of Paterculus, and wife of Pulvius 
riaccus, has been considered, in the judgment of matrons, to 
have been the chastest of women. She was selected from one 
hundred Eoman ladies, who had been previously named, to 
dedicate a statue of Yenus, in obedience to the precepts con- 
tained in the Sibylline books.^^ Again, Claudia gave strong 
proof of her piety and virtue, on the occasion of the introduc- 
tion into Eome of the Mother of the gods.^^ 
CHAP. 36. (36.) INSTANCES OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF 
AFFECTION. 
Infinite is the number of examples of affection which have 
been known in all parts of the world ; but one in particular 
occurred at Eome, to which no other can possibly be com- 
pared. A woman of quite the lower class, and whose name 
has consequently not come down to us, having lately given 
birth to a child, obtained permission to visit her mother,^^ who 
was confined in prison ; but was always carefully searched by 
the gaoler before being admitted, to prevent her from intro- 
28 We have this anecdote related by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 15. 
He informs us, that it was the statue of Yenus Yerticordia which was 
ordered to be consecrated; the more readily to win the hearts of the 
maidens and matrons from wanton thoughts to a life of chastity. — B. 
29 Her story is told at great length by Ovid, in the Fasti, B. iv. 1. 305, 
et seq. Her name was Claudia Quinta, and she is supposed to have been 
the sister of Appius Claudius Pulcher, and grand-daughter of Appius Clau- 
dius Csecus. The vessel which was conveying the statue of Cybele from 
Pessinus to Eome having stuck fast on a shallow at the mouth of the Tiber, 
the soothsayers declared that none but a really chaste woman could move 
it. Claudia, who had been previously accused of unchastity, being in the 
number of the matrons who had accompanied Scipio to Ostia to receive the 
statue, immediately presented herself, and calKng upon the goddess to vin- 
dicate her innocence, seized the rope, and the vessel moved forthwith. A 
statue was afterwards erected to her in the vestibule of the temple of the 
goddess. 
Solinus and Festus differ somewhat from Pliny, in stating that it 
was her father whose life was thus saved by the affectionate daughter, 
Valerius Maximus, who tells the story, says that the family was '* ingenui 
sanguinis," meaning ^' of genteel origin." Such families were, however, 
sometimes reduced, even among the Eomans, to a level with the plebeian 
classes. 
