34.4
"You
have often heard me complain of the expensive habits of women and often,
too, of those of men, not only private citizens but even magistrates, and I
have often said that the community suffers from two opposite vices -avarice
and luxury -pestilential diseases which have proved the ruin of all great
empires. The brighter and better the fortunes of the republic become day by
day, and the greater the growth of its dominion -and now we are penetrating
into Greece and Asia, regions filled with everything that can tempt appetite
or excite desire, and are even laying hands on the treasures of kings -so
much the more do I dread the prospect of these things taking us captive
rather than we them. It was a bad day for this City, believe me, when the
statues were brought from Syracuse. I hear far too many people praising and
admiring those which adorn Athens and Corinth and laughing at the clay
images of our gods standing in front of their temples. I for my part prefer
these gods who are propitious to us, and I trust that they will continue to be
so as long as we allow them to remain in their present abodes.
In the days of our forefathers Pyrrhus attempted, through his
ambassador Cineas, to tamper with the loyalty of women as well as men by
means of bribes. The Law of Oppius in restraint of female extravagance had
not then been passed, still not a single woman accepted a bribe. What do you
think was the reason? The same reason which our forefathers had for not
making any law on the subject; there was no extravagance to be restrained.
Diseases must be recognised before remedies are applied, and so the passion
for self-indulgence must be in existence before the laws which are to curb it.
What called out the Licinian Law which restricted estates to 500 jugera
except the keen desire of adding field to field? What led to the passing of the
Cincian Law concerning presents and fees except the condition of the
plebeians who had become tributaries and taxpayers to the senate? It is not
therefore in the least surprising that neither the Oppian nor any other law
was in those days required to set limits to the expensive habits of women
when they refused to accept the gold and purple that was freely offered to
them. If Cineas were to go in these days about the City with his gifts, he
would find women standing in the streets quite ready to accept them.
There are some desires of which I cannot penetrate either the
motive or the reason. That what is permitted to another should be forbidden
to you may naturally create a feeling of shame or indignation, but when all
are upon the same level as far as dress is concerned why should any one of
you fear that you will not attract notice ? The very last things to be ashamed
of are thriftiness and poverty, but this law relieves you of both since you do
not possess what it forbids you to possess. The wealthy woman says, 'This
levelling down is just what I do not tolerate. Why am I not to be admired
and looked at for my gold and purple? Why is the poverty of others
disguised under this appearance of law so that they may be thought to have
possessed, had the law allowed it, what it was quite out of their power to
possess?'
Do you want, Quirites, to plunge your wives into a rivalry of this
nature, where the rich desire to have what no one else can afford, and the
poor, that they may not be despised for their poverty, stretch their expenses
beyond their means? Depend upon it, as soon as a woman begins to be
ashamed of what she ought not to be ashamed of she will cease to feel shame
at what she ought to be ashamed of. She who is in a position to do so will
get what she wants with her own money, she who cannot do this will ask her
husband. The husband is in a pitiable plight whether he yields or refuses; in
the latter case he will see another giving what he refused to give. Now they
are soliciting other women's husbands, and what is worse they are soliciting
votes for the repeal of a law, and are getting them from some, against the
interest of you and your property and your children. When once the law has
ceased to fix a limit to your wife's expenses, you will never fix one. Do not
imagine that things will be the same as they were before the law was made. It
is safer for an evil-doer not to be prosecuted than for him to be tried and
then acquitted, and luxury and extravagance would have been more tolerable
had they never been interfered with than they will be now, just like wild
beasts which have been irritated by their chains and then released. I give my
vote against every attempt to repeal the law, and pray that all the gods may
give your action a fortunate result."
