Scarcely less distinguished and accomplished was another Cornelia, the wife of Pompey, the Great. "Besides her youthful beauty," writes Plutarch, in his _Life of Pompey_, "she possessed other charms, for she was well versed in literature, in playing on the lyre, and in geometry, and she had been used to listen to philosophical discourses with profit. Besides this, she had a disposition free from all affectation and display of pedantry--blemishes which such acquirements usually breed in women."[19] Then there was the cultured and devoted Aurelia, the mother of Julius Caesar. It is safe to say that this eminent man was as much indebted to his mother for his success and greatness as were Tiberius and Caius Gracchus to the benign influence and careful teachings of the gentle and virtuous Cornelia. Highly educated and of commanding personalities, both these women, like many others of their time, contributed much to the making of Roman history by the success they achieved in molding the characters of some of the greatest men of their own or of any age. It is a splendid tribute that Cicero, in his _Orator_, pays to Laelia when he tells of the purity of her language and the charm of her conversation. "When I listen," he declares, "to my mother-in-law, Laelia--for women preserve the traditional purity of accent the best because, being limited in their intercourse with the multitude, they retain their early impressions--I could imagine that I hear Plautus or Naevius speaking, the pronunciation is so plain and simple, so perfectly free from all affectation and display; from which I infer that such was the accent of her father and his ancestors--not harsh like the pronunciation to which I have just referred, not broad nor rustic nor rugged, but terse, smooth and flowing."[20]