10.
As such pledges of mutual love subsisted, and as neither kept any thing secret from the other, the young man, [p. 1801]jokingly, bid her not be surprised if he separated himself from her for a few nights; as, “on account of a religious duty, to discharge a vow made for his health, he intended to be initiated among the Bacchanalians.”
[2]
On hearing this, the woman, greatly alarmed, cried out, “May the gods will more favourably!” affirming that “it would be better, both for him and her, to lose their lives than that he should do such a thing:” she then imprecated curses, vengeance, and destruction, on the head of those who advised him to such a step.
[3]
The young man, surprised both at her expressions and at the violence of her alarm, bid her refrain from curses, for “it was his mother who ordered him to do so, with the approbation of his stepfather.”
[4]
“Then,” said she, “your stepfather (for perhaps it is not allowable to censure your mother) is in haste to destroy, by that act, your chastity, your character, your hopes, and your life.”
[5]
To him, now surprised by such language, and inquiring what was the matter, she said, (after imploring the favour and pardon of the gods and goddesses, if, compelled by her regard for him, she disclosed what ought not to be revealed,) that “when in service, she had gone into that place of worship, as an attendant on her mistress;
[6]
but that, since she had obtained her liberty, she had never once gone near it: that she knew it to be the receptacle of all kinds of debaucheries; that it was well known that, for two years past, no one older than twenty had been initiated there.
[7]
When any person was introduced he was delivered as a victim to the priests, who led him away to a place resounding with shouts, the sound of music, and the beating of cymbals and drums, lest his cries, while suffering violation, should be heard abroad.”
[8]
She then entreated and besought him to put an end to that matter in some way or other; and not to plunge himself into a situation, where he must first suffer, and afterwards commit, every thing that was abominable.
[9]
Nor did she quit him until the young man gave her his promise to keep himself clear of those rites.
Livy. History of Rome by Titus Livius, books thirty-seven to the end, with the epitomes and fragments of the lost books. literally translated, with notes and illustrations, by. William A. McDevitte. York Street, Covent Garden, London. Henry G. Bohn. John Child and son, printers, Bungay. 1850. 4.
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