The absence of freedom before marriage is not, however, without its evil consequences. The young men had generally got attached to some handsome slaves before they married, and the old men seemed very much inclined to renew their youthful recollections by pranks of a similar nature. This is the cause of the most serious quarrels between husband and wife. In one passage the unfairness of the position of husband and wife in this respect is set forth, though not by a wife, but by a slave:-- “By Castor, wives live on hard terms, and much more unfair--poor wretches that they are--than their husbands. For if the husband has his courtezan without the knowledge of his wife, and she comes to know, he gets off scot-free; but if the wife go but to the outside without the knowledge of her husband, the husband has a case made for him, and she is divorced. Would that there were the same law for husband as for wife! For a good wife is content with one husband, why should not a husband be content with one wife?”[244] When the wife thinks that she is badly used, she generally sends for her father. She expects him either to effect a reconciliation, or procure the return of her dowry and a divorce. In some cases, as in that of Menæchmus, the father takes the side of the husband and counsels submission. Though there are some bad wives, there are also some very good. Foremost among these is Alcmena in the ‘Amphitruo.’ She is a true, loving, faithful wife. She greets her supposed husband on his return from war with the kindliest welcome. She is never impure even in any single thought, but is simply chaste throughout, even in scenes which might have tempted the poet to pander to his rough audience. She is astonished and amazed at the suspicions of her real husband, but no consideration will make her confess to a crime which she has not committed. She always retains the dignity of stainless purity. But if jealousy is to rule his soul, she is willing to part from him, and asks her dowry:-- “Valeas: tibi habeas res tuas, reddas meas. Juben’ mihi comites? “_Jup._ Sanan’ es? “_Al._ Si non jubes, Sinito: Pudicitiam egomet comitem duxero.”