was transacted.[1] Agrippina shared the hardships of Germanicus in his campaign against the Germans, opposed herself to the disorder of the troops when retreating through fear of the enemy, preserved the bridge over the Rhine, which in their panic they were about to demolish, and, combining the duties of a general with those of the intendant of an ambulance, restored confidence to the legions.[2] Yet Germanicus, in his Asiatic command, fell a victim to the machinations of Plancina, the wife of a colleague; and Agrippina strove ineffectively to withstand the malignant arts of another woman.[3] In some instances oppression of the provincials was clearly traceable to female arrogance and intrigue; and at length it was seriously proposed in the Senate that no official should be accompanied by his consort, when deputed to the government of a province. The motion was hotly debated, but was ultimately lost through the vehemency of opposition.[4]
Nothing in antiquity is more remarkable than the diversity of sentiment as to prostitution among the Greeks. Considering the deification of amorous passion and fecundity expressed by polytheism in the cult of Aphrodite, and the ethics of social order which instilled a reverence for chastity, the popular mind continually wavered as to whether the hetaira or courtesan should be contemned as an outcast, or
- ↑ Tacitus, Ann., iii, 33.
- ↑ Ibid., i, 69.
- ↑ Ibid., ii, 55, 74; iii, 17, etc. As she acted with the secret approval of the Court, she was acquitted at a mock trial (20), but a dozen years later, on the death of her accessories, she anticipated her fate by suicide; ibid., vi, 26.
- ↑ Ibid., iii, 33. Plutarch (De Mul. Virt.), has collected twenty-seven instances of the notable doings of women, and Polyaenus (Stratagemata, viii) has repeated most of them, and added almost as many more. The latter record extends up to about 170.
