Excellent Women

Pliny's nose was buried in his book.

How's it going, Pliny? I asked.

He looked up, wiping a tear from his eye.

Ah, he said. My nephew was an excellent young man. This book is all about the various women mentioned in his letters. And it would seem he hardly had a bad word to say of any of them. Indeed, he seems to have been quite famous for his descriptions of ideal Roman women.

Oh that's lovely, Pliny, I said. Tell me more.

Well, he said, my nephew was married three times, but it was his last wife, Calpurnia, to whom he was the most devoted, and she to him. She was very young when they married, and she was very interested in his career. She used to send for news of how his speeches were received, and at home she would sit behind a curtain during readings of his works, listening eagerly to the comments and the praises of his friends.

Did she indeed?

She did. And when she had to go to the country for her health he used to write to her most tenderly of how he missed her.

That's really nice.

It is. And furthermore, he wote of a Roman woman called Arria, who was a model of Roman courage and restraint.

What did she do?

Her husband and son were dying at the same time. The son died first. but she did not tell her dying husband, wishing to spare him the sad knowledge. She cried in private, but kept a cheerful face in front of him. When it became evident that her husband wished to kill himself to avoid further agony, she took a sword and plunged it into her own breast, saying to him as she died, Paetus, it does not hurt. This gave him the courage to do the same.

Good gracious, Pliny. Such behaviour would not be viewed as admirable today. What she did was totally demented.

That may well be. She did have a history of threatening to do away with herself. But you know we Romans were rather obsessed with dying a noble death.

So I've heard. Anyway, I'm glad you're pleased with Pliny the Younger's women. Now you can write that review and earn your banana points towards the poster.

Oh yes! I had forgotten about the poster!