[305] INTENDS HIS DAUGHTER TO MARRY A CONSUL. Roman women married at a very early age, therefore in the nature of things, parents made the choice for the inexperienced girls. Thus Junius Mauricus requested the younger Pliny, to propose a husband for the daughter of his brother Junius Rusticus Arulenus. (See Book II, p. 55.) Pliny (_Ep._ I, 14) recommends his friend Minucius Acilianus, and in a quiet, business-like manner enumerates his excellent qualities, among which he does not forget to mention a considerable fortune. To be sure, the daughter’s formal consent was necessary. The young girls of our story, by the way, out of respect for our modern ideas, are described as young girls at an age, when Romans were usually married women. For the ordinary marriageable age, see Friedländer’s detailed description in the appendix to the first part of his “_Sittengeschichte_,” where he gives a number of inscriptions taken from the tombs, where the age of the girl at the time of her marriage is either directly stated, or may be ascertained by deducting the years of marriage from those of life. Twelve of the wives mentioned, married before they were fourteen, four at fourteen, three at sixteen, one at nineteen, and one at twenty-five. We are, however, expressly told that marriages of girls under twelve were by no means rare. [306] VARUS. The famous victory of the Germans over Quintilius Varus occurred in the year 9, A.D. [307] PARTHIANS. A people who lived south of the Caspian sea. Their territory afterwards extended to the Euphrates. The Romans had numerous feuds with this nation. [308] CANTABRIAN BEAR. Cantabria, the mountainous region in the north of Spain, supplied most of the bears for the Roman wild-beast combats. [309] ANANKE (Ανάγκη) personifies, like the Latin Fatum, the idea, that in every event which happens, there is an unalterable necessity, to which not only human beings, but even the gods are subject. [310] BY THE FAMOUS MURAL PAINTINGS. See Mart. _Ep._ II, 14. Ill, 20, etc. [311] SEPTA. See Mart. _Ep._ II, 14; IX, 59.