Lucretia, a young matron of high rank, was found busy among her maidens, assisting their spinning and weaving, and preparation of wool, when her husband arrived with his guests, late in the evening. The high value placed upon a stainless reputation may be inferred from the fact that Lucretia would not survive dishonor, though she had been the blameless victim of another’s vices. Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, was courted by a monarch, but preferred being the wife of Sempronius Gracchus, a Roman citizen. After the death of her husband, she took the entire management of his estate, and the education of her sons. She was distinguished for virtue, learning, and good sense. She wrote and spoke with uncommon elegance and purity. Cicero and Quintilian bestow high praise upon her letters. The eloquence of her children was attributed to her careful superintendence. When a Campanian lady ostentatiously displayed a profusion of jewels, and begged Cornelia to show hers, she exhibited her boys, just returned from school, saying: “These are my jewels; the only ornaments of which I can boast.” During her lifetime, a statue was erected in honor of her character, bearing this inscription: “Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi.” The rigid decorum of Roman manners may be inferred from the circumstance that Cato expelled a senator, merely because he kissed his wife in the presence of his daughter. “For my own part,” said he, “my wife never embraces me except when it thunders terribly;” adding, by way of joke, “I am a very happy man when Jove is pleased to thunder.” The superior condition of Roman women, in comparison with the Greeks, may in a great measure be attributed to an event that occurred in the very beginning of their history.