statesman was carried outside the walls to be buried or burned, he would
be taken to hear the oration pronounced over the bier.

At one time it was the custom, if we may believe a quaint story which
one of the Roman writers tells us, for the senators to introduce their
young sons to the sittings of their assembly, very much in the same way
as the boys of Westminster School are admitted to hear the debates in
the Houses of Parliament. The story professes to show how it was that
one of the families of the race of Papirius came to bear the name of
_Praetextatus_, i.e., clad in the _praetexta_ (the garb of boyhood), and
it runs thus:--"It was the custom in the early days of the Roman State
that the senators should bring their young sons into the Senate to the
end that they might learn in their early days how great affairs of the
commonwealth were managed. And that no harm should ensue to the city, it
was strictly enjoined upon the lads that they should not say aught of
the things which they had heard within the House. It happened on a day
that the Senate, after long debate upon a certain matter, adjourned the
thing to the morrow. Hereupon the son of a certain senator, named
Papirius, was much importuned by his mother to tell the matter which had
been thus painfully debated. And when the lad, remembering the command
which had been laid upon him that he should be silent about such
matters, refused to tell it, the woman besought him to speak more
urgently, till at the last, being worn out by her importunities, he
contrived this thing. 'The Senate,' he said, 'debated whether something
might not be done whereby there should be more harmony in families than
is now seen to be; and whether, should it be judged expedient to make
any change, this should be to order that a husband should have many
wives, or a wife should have more husbands than one.' Then the woman,
being much disturbed by the thing which she had heard, hastened to all
the matrons of her acquaintance, and stirred them up not to suffer any