field. But I am becoming
long-winded. I will restrain myself for fear of gratifying you by my
praise of country life.

89. As to Pudentilla's age, concerning which you lied so boldly as to
assert that she had married at the age of sixty, I will reply in a few
words. It is not necessary to speak at length in discussing a matter
where the truth is so obvious.

Her father acknowledged her for his daughter in the usual fashion; the
documents in which he did so are preserved partly in the public record
office, partly in his house. Here they are before your very eyes.
Please hand the documents to Aemilianus. Let him examine the linen
strip that bears the seal; let him recognize the seal stamped upon
it, let him read the names of the consuls for the year, let him count
up the years. He gave her sixty years. Let him bring out the total at
fifty-five, admitting that he lied and gave her five too many. Nay,
that is hardly enough. I will deal yet more liberally with him. He
gave Pudentilla such a number of years that I will reward him by
returning ten. Mezentius has been wandering with Ulysses; let him at
least prove that she is fifty. To cut the matter short, as I am
dealing with an accuser who is used to multiplying by four, I will
multiply five years by four and subtract twenty years at one fell
swoop. I beg you, Maximus, to order the number of consuls since her
birth to be reckoned. If I am not mistaken, you will find that
Pudentilla has barely passed her fortieth year. The insolent audacity
of this falsehood! Twenty years' exile would be a worthy punishment
for such mendacity! Your fiction has added a good half to the sum,
your fabrication is one and a half times the size of the original. Had
you said thirty years when you ought to have said ten, it might have
been supposed that you had made a slip in the gesture used for your
calculation, that you had placed your forefinger against the middle
joint of your thumb, when you should have made them form a circle. But
whereas the gesture indicating forty is the simplest of all such
gestures, for you have merely to hold out the palm of your hand--you
have increased the number by half as much again. There is no room for
an erroneous gesture; the only possible hypothesis is that, believing
Pudentilla to be thirty, you got your total by adding up the number of
consuls, two to each year.

90. I have done with this. I come now to the very heart of the
accusation, to the actual motiv