VALERIUS MAXIMUS

MEMORABLE DEEDS AND SAYINGS

 
[Translated by DR Shackleton Bailey in the Loeb edition, which can be purchased at the Harvard University Press website by clicking here.]

BOOK VI

1. OF CHASTITY

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Curule Aedile M. Claudius Marcellus summoned Tribune of the Plebs C. Scantinius Capitolinus to trial before the people on a charge of having tried to seduce his son. Scantinius asserted that as a holder of a sacrosanct power he could not be forced to attend and on that account asked the Tribunes for aid. But the entire board of Tribunes refused to intervene to prevent an inquiry concerning chastity from taking its course. Scantinius therefore was cited as defendant and convicted on the sole evidence of the person who had been solicited. We are told that when the young man was brought to the rostra he fixed his eyes on the ground and persistently kept mute, by which modest silence he contributed powerfully to his own avenging.

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