The relations of unmarried women in Greece were bound by law to provide for them, either by seeing them married to some suitable person, or to furnish them with the means of support according to their rank in life; or if a woman had no near kindred, this duty devolved upon a guardian called κυριος. It is probable that this obligation extended equally to the paternal and maternal relations, though the latter generally acted only in case of the former becoming extinct. Terence warrants the supposition of relations on both sides, being compelled to act, as he uses the word _cognatus_, which signifies strictly a relation by the mother’s side, _agnatus_, on the contrary, is never employed but to designate a kinsman by the father’s side, though _cognatus_ is often used as a common term for both; and such is its meaning in this passage: for if the law had been confined to the father’s relations, Terence would certainly have used _agnatus_, and thereby clearly designated the particular persons who were bound to observe it. NOTE 71. _The distaff and the loom._ The Greek and Roman women led generally very domesticated lives, and passed a considerable portion of their time in spinning and weaving. The simple manners of the earlier ages obliged each family to depend, in a great measure, on itself, for the supply of its various wants, and the kings and heroes of antiquity, might doubly prize a mantle or a vest, wrought by the hands of those who were dearest to them. Wool was usually worn; but linen, though highly valued, seems to have been but rarely used. When the Greeks became more refined, this simplicity of manners among women of rank gave place to less laborious habits, and slaves were instructed in the art of spinning and weaving. NOTE 72. _Several lovers made their addresses to her, &c._ This passage has been elegantly and chastely softened by an ingenious French writer, who flourished about the year 1650. I shall subjoin in this, and other subsequent notes, the various alterations made by this judicious editor, together with the original passages: the lines he has introduced are beautifully written, and a close imitation of the style of Terence: I cannot doubt but they will be considered worthy of a perusal: they are a proof of a laudable delicacy, which was but too rarely to be met with in many of the poets of both England and France, _in the 17th century_. The original passage runs thus:―― “Primùm hæc pudicè vitam, parcè, ac duriter Agebat, lana ac tela victum quæritans: Sed postquam amans accessit, _pretium pollicens, Unus, et item alter, ita ut ingenium est omnium Hominum ab labore proclive ad libidinem: Accepit conditionem, dein_ quæstum occipit.” Which is altered by the French translator to the following:――