It was formerly usual for the Senators of Rome to enter the
Senate-house, accompanied by their sons, who had taken the prætexta.
When something of superior importance was discussed in the senate, and
the farther consideration adjourned to the day following, it was
resolved that no one should divulge the subject of their debates till it
should be formally decreed. The mother of the young Papirus, who had
accompanied his father to the Senate-house, enquired of her son what the
senators had been doing. The youth replied, that he had been enjoined
silence, and was not at liberty to say. The woman became more anxious to
know: the secretness of the thing, and the silence of the youth did but
inflame her curiosity; she, therefore, urged him with the more vehement
earnestness. The young man, on the importunity of his mother, determined
on a humorous and pleasant fallacy: he said it was discussed in the
senate which would be most beneficial to the state, for one man to have
two wives, or one woman to have two husbands. As soon as she heard this,
she was much agitated; and, leaving her house in great trepidation,
hastened to tell the other matrons what she had learned. The next day,
a troop of matrons went to the Senate house; and, with tears and
entreaties, implored that one woman might be suffered to have two
husbands, rather than one man to have two wives. The senators, on
entering the house, were astonished, and wondered what this intemperate
proceeding of the women and their petition could mean. The young
Papirus, advancing to the midst of the senate, explained the importunity
of his mother, his answer, and the matter as it was. The senate,
delighted with the honour and ingenuity of the youth, decreed that, from
that time, no youth should be suffered to enter the senate with his
father, this Papirus alone accepted. He was afterwards honourably
distinguished by the cognomen of Prætextatus, on account of his
discretion at such an age.
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