standing. The world had not stood still since Socrates had requested
some one to take Xanthippe home, lest he be burdened by her sympathy in
his last moments. Pains were taken that the Roman girl of wealth should
have special tutors.[185] "Pompeius Saturninus recently read me some
letters," writes Pliny[186] to one of his correspondents, "which he
insisted had been written by his wife. I believed that Plautus or
Terence was being read in prose. Whether they are really his wife's, as
he maintains; or his own, which he denies; he deserves equal honour,
either because he composes them, or because he has made his wife, whom
he married when a mere girl, so learned and polished." The enthusiasm of
the ladies for literature is attested by Persius.[187]

According to Juvenal, who, as an orthodox satirist, was not fond of the
weaker sex, women sometimes became over-educated. He growls as
follows[188]: "That woman is a worse nuisance than usual who, as soon as
she goes to bed, praises Vergil; makes excuses for doomed Dido; pits
bards against one another and compares them; and weighs Homer and Maro
in the balance. Teachers of literature give way, professors are
vanquished, the whole mob is hushed, and no lawyer or auctioneer will
speak, nor any other woman." The prospect of a learned wife filled the
orthodox Roman with peculiar horror.[189] No Roman woman ever became a
public professor as did Hypatia or, ages later, Bitisia Gozzadina, who,
in the thirteenth century, became doctor of canon and civil law at the
University of Bologna.

I have been speaking of women of the wealthier classes; but the poor
were not neglected. As far back as the time of the Twelve Tables--450
B.C.--parents of moderate means were accustomed to club together and
hire a schoolroom and a teacher who would instruct the children, girls
no less than boys, in at least the proverbial three R's. Virginia was on