nurture and an honest life: and I am Cato’s daughter and also Brutus’s wife, whereon hitherto I had less relied, but now I know that I am also invincible to pain.”[103] Then she showed her husband the wound. He admired the deed, and, stretching out his hands, he prayed the gods “that they would render him worthy of so noble a wife.” The other Stoic woman whom I shall mention is the well-known Arria, the wife of Pætus. Pliny gives the following narrative, received from her granddaughter: “Her husband, Cæcina Pætus, was sick; her son also was sick, both, to all appearance, by a fatal attack. The son died; a youth of exquisite beauty, of equal modesty, and dear to the parents as much because he was their son as for other reasons. She made all the preparations for the funeral, and paid the last rites to him, in such a way that her husband remained in ignorance of what was going on. Whenever she entered his chamber she pretended that her son still lived and was even improving in health. And when he often asked, ‘How is my boy?’ she would answer, ‘He had a good night, he took a little food eagerly.’ But when the tears, long kept in check, overcame her and began to stream forth, she would go outside and give herself up to a flood of grief, and then come back with dry eyes and calm countenance.”[104] It was this same woman who taught her husband how to die. He had received commands from the Emperor Claudius to put himself to death. He hesitated. His wife thereupon took a dagger, plunged it into her breast, drew it out and offered it to her husband, with the words, “Pætus, it does not pain.” There were many such Stoic women. What opinions did they entertain in regard to the education and position of their sex? We are well informed on this point.