hy need I remind you of the deaths of the other Caesars, whom fortune
appears to me sometimes to have outraged in order that even by their
deaths they might be useful to mankind, by proving that not even they,
altho they were styled "sons of gods," and "fathers of gods to come,"
could exercise the same power over their own fortunes which they did
over those of others? The Emperor Augustus lost his children and his
grandchildren, and after all the family of Caesar had perished was
obliged to prop his empty house by adopting a son: yet he bore his
losses as bravely as tho he were already personally concerned in the
honor of the gods, and as tho it were especially to his interest that
no one should complain of the injustice of Heaven. Tiberius Caesar lost
both the son whom he begot and the son whom he adopted, yet he
himself pronounced a panegyric upon his son from the Rostra, and
stood in full view of the corpse, which merely had a curtain on one
side to prevent the eyes of the high priest resting upon the dead
body, and did not change his countenance, tho all the Romans wept: he
gave Sejanus, who stood by his side, a proof of how patiently he could
endure the loss of his relatives. See you not what numbers of most
eminent men there have been, none of whom have been spared by this
blight which prostrates us all: men, too, adorned with every grace of
character, and every distinction that public or private life can
confer. It appears as tho this plague moved in a regular orbit, and
spread ruin and desolation among us all without distinction of
persons, all being alike its prey. Bid any number of individuals tell
you the story of their lives: you will find that all have paid some
penalty for being born.

I know what you will say, "You quote men as examples: you forget that
it is a woman that you are trying to console." Yet who would say that
nature has dealt grudgingly with the minds of women and stunted their
virtues? Believe me, they have the same intellectual power as men, and
the same capacity for honorable and generous action. If trained to do
so, they are just as able to endure sorrow or labor. Ye good gods, do
I say this in that very city in which Lucretia and Brutus removed the
yoke of kings from the necks of the Romans? We owe liberty to Brutus,
but we owe Brutus to Lucretia--in which Cloelia,[80] for the
sublime courage with which she scorned both the enemy and the river,
has been almost reckoned as a man.

The s