38.24
Now
came the campaign against the Tectosagi, and the consul commenced his
advance against them. In a three days' march he reached Ancyra, a city of
importance in that district, and the enemy were only ten miles distant from it.
Whilst he was here in camp a remarkable incident occurred in connection
with a female prisoner. The wife of a chief named Orgiagon, a woman of
exceptional beauty, was with other captives in the custody of a centurion
who was notorious even amongst soldiers for his licentiousness and greed.
At first he made improper proposals to her, but finding that she treated them
with abhorrence, he took advantage of her servile condition and violated her.
Then, to assuage her anger and shame at the outrage, he held out hopes to
her of returning to her friends, but not as a lover would have done without
ransom. He stipulated for a certain weight of gold, and to prevent his men
from knowing anything about it, he allowed her to choose one of the
prisoners and send a message by him to her friends. A spot by the river was
fixed upon where not more than two of her friends were to come with the
gold on the following night and receive her. There happened to be amongst
the prisoners one of her own slaves, and this man was conducted by the
centurion beyond the ramparts as soon as it was dark. The following night
two of her friends and the centurion with his captive met at the place. Whilst
they were showing him the gold, which amounted to an Attic talent -the
sum agreed upon -the woman speaking in her own language ordered them
to draw their swords and cut off the centurion's head while he was counting
out the gold. Wrapping up the murdered man's head in her robe, she took it
to her husband, who had fled home from Olympus. Before embracing him
she flung down the head at his feet, and whilst he was wondering whose
head it could possibly be, or what such an unwomanly act could mean, she
told him about the outrage she had endured and the revenge she had taken
for her violated chastity. It is recorded that by the purity and strictness of her
life she maintained to the very last the honour of a deed so worthy of a
matron.
