of the Lacedæmonian army at Leuctra, those matrons who expected to receive their sons alive from the battle, were silent and melancholy; while those who received an account that their children were slain in battle, went to the temples to offer thanksgivings, and congratulated each other with every demonstration of joy.

The Lacedæmonians usually carried bodies to the grave on bucklers; hence the command of the Spartan mother to her son, "either to bring his buckler back from the wars, or be brought upon it."

Some foreign women said to Gorgo, wife of king Leonidas, "You Spartans are the only women that govern men." "Because we are the only women who give birth to men," she replied. This answer was in allusion to their own strength and vigor, and to the pains they took to make their boys bold and hardy.

The Lacedæmonian women seem to have had a share in all the concerns of the commonwealth; and during the early portions of their history they appear to have been well worthy of the respect paid to them. When a new senator was chosen, he was crowned with a garland, and the women assembled to sing his domestic virtues and his warlike courage. At the public feast given in honor of his election, he called the female relative for whom he had the greatest esteem and gave her a portion, saying, "That which I received as a mark of honor, I give to you." When Cleomenes, king of Sparta, was beset with powerful enemies, the king of Egypt agreed to fur

nish him with succors, provided he would send his mother and his children as hostages. Filial respect and tenderness made the prince extremely unwilling to name this requisition. His mother, perceiving that he made an effort to conceal something from her, persuaded her friends to tell her what it was. As soon as she heard it, she laughed outright, and said, "Was this the thing you so long hesitated to communicate? Put us on board a ship, and send this old carcase of mine wherever you think it may be of the most use to Sparta, before age renders it good for nothing, and sinks it into the grave." When every thing was ready for departure, she, being alone with her son, saw that he struggled hard with emotion. She threw her arms around him, and said, "King of the Lacedæmonians, be careful that we do nothing unworthy of Sparta! This alone is in our power; the event belongs to the gods."

When Cleombrotus rebelled against his wife's father, in spite of her entreaties, and usurped the kingdom, Chelonis left her husband and followed the fallen fortunes of her parent; but when the tide turned, and Cleombrotus was in disgrace and danger, she joined her husband as a suppliant for royal mercy, and was found sitting by him, with the utmost tenderness, with her two children at her feet. She assured her father that if his submission and her tears could not save his life, she would die before him. The king, softened by her entreaties, changed the intended sentence of death into exile, and begged his daughter to remain with a father who loved her so

affectionately. But Chelonis could not be persuaded. She followed her husband into banishment.

Such was the character of Spartan women in the earlier periods of their history; but in later times their boldness and immodesty increased to such a degree that they became a by-word and a reproach throughout Greece.

In Grecian mythology, the goddesses are about as numerous and important as the gods. That Beauty, Health, and Majesty should be represented as female deities, is by no means remarkable; but, considering the estimation in which women were held, it is somewhat singular that Wisdom should have been a goddess, and that sister muses should have presided over history, epic poetry, dramatic poetry, and astronomy. The tradition that Ceres first taught the use of laws does not probably imply that legislation was invented by a woman; but that as men left a wandering life, and devoted themselves to agriculture, (of which Ceres was the personification,) they began to perceive the necessity of laws for mutual defence and protection.

In the earliest and best days of Rome, the first magistrates and generals of armies ploughed their own fields, and threshed their own grain. Integrity, industry, and simplicity, were the prevailing virtues of the times; and the character of women was, as it always must be, in accordance with that of men. Columella says: "Roman husbands, having completed the labors of the day, entered their houses; free

from all care, and there enjoyed perfect repose. There reigned union, and concord, and industry, supported by mutual affection. The most beautiful wo

man depended for distinction only on her economy, and endeavors to assist in crowning her husband's diligence with prosperity. All was in common between them; nothing was thought to belong more to one than another. The wife, by her assiduity and activity within doors, cqualled and seconded the industry and labor of her husband."

It was common for sons to marry and bring home their wives to the paternal estate. Plutarch says: "There were not fewer than sixteen of the Elian family and name, who had only a small house and one farm among them; and in this house they all lived, with their wives and many children. Here dwelt the daughter of Æmilius, who had been twice consul, and had triumphed twice; not ashamed of her husband's poverty, but admiring that virtue which kept him poor."

Tanaquil, wife of Tarquin the First, one of the best kings of Rome, was noted for her industry and ingenuity, as well as energy and ambition. Her distaff was hung up in the temple of Hercules, and her girdle, with a robe she embroidered for her son-inlaw, were long preserved with the utmost veneration. Her political influence seems to have been great, and her liberality munificent. Her husband was originally a private citizen of Tarquinia; but her knowledge of augury led her to predict that an uncommon 'destiny awaited him at Rome, and she persuaded

him to go thither. After his death, she succeeded in raising her son-in-law, Servius Tullius, to the throne. Lucretia, a young matron of high rank, was found busy among her maidens, assisting their spinning and weaving, and preparation of wool, when her husband arrived with his guests, late in the evening. The high value placed upon a stainless reputation may be inferred from the fact that Lucretia would not survive dishonor, though she had been the blameless victim of another's vices.

Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, was courted by a monarch, but preferred being the wife of Sempronius Gracchus, a Roman citizen. After the death of her husband, she took the entire management of his estate, and the education of her sons. She was distinguished for virtue, learning, and good sense. She wrote and spoke with uncommon elegance and purity. Cicero and Quintilian bestow high praise upon her letters. The eloquence of her children was attributed to her careful superintendence. When a Campanian lady ostentatiously displayed a profusion of jewels, and begged Cornelia to show hers, she exhibited her boys, just returned from school, saying: "These are my jewels; the only ornaments of which I can boast." During her lifetime, a statue was erected in honor of her character, bearing this inscription: "Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi."

The rigid decorum of Roman manners may be inferred from the circumstance that Cato expelled a senator, merely because he kissed his wife in the