to another.[11] Even when _sui iuris_ a woman could not acquire power
over any one, not even over her own children[12]; for these an agnate--a
male relative on the father's side--was appointed guardian, and the
mother was obliged to render him and her children an account of any
property which she had managed for them.[13] On the other hand, her
children were bound to support her.[14]

[Sidenote: Digression on the growth of respect for women]

So much for the laws on the subject. They seem rigorous enough, and in
early times were doubtless executed with strictness. A marked feature,
however, of the Roman character, a peculiarity which at once strikes the
student of their history as compared with that of the Greeks, was their
great respect for the home and the _materfamilias_. The stories of
Lucretia, Cloelia, Virginia, Cornelia, Arria, and the like, familiar to
every Roman schoolboy, must have raised greatly the esteem in which
women were held. As Rome became a world power, the Romans likewise grew
in breadth of view, in equity, and in tolerance. The political
influence wielded by women[15] was as great during the first three
centuries after Christ as it has ever been at any period of the world's
history; and the powers of a Livia, an Agrippina, a Plotina, did not
fail to show pointedly what a woman could do. In the early days of the
Republic women who touched wine were severely punished and male
relatives were accustomed solemnly to kiss them, if haply they might
discover the odour of drink on their breath.[16] Valerius Maximus tells
us that Egnatius Mecenas, a Roman knight, beat his wife to death for
drinking wine.[17] Cato the Censor (234-149 B.C.) dilated with joy on
the fact that a woman could be condemned to death by her husband for
adultery without a public trial, whereas men were allowed any number of
infidelities without censure.[18] The senator Metellus (131 B.C.)