[a] In order to brand and stigmatise the Roman matrons who committed
the care of their infant children to hired nurses, Tacitus observes,
that no such custom was known among the savages of Germany. See
_Manners of the Germans_, s. xx. See also Quintilian, on the subject
of education, lib. i. cap. 2 and 3.
[b] Cornelia, the mother of the two Gracchi, was daughter to the first
Scipio Africanus. The sons, Quintilian says, owed much of their
eloquence to the care and institutions of their mother, whose taste
and learning were fully displayed in her letters, which were then in
the hands of the public. _Nam Gracchorum eloquentiæ multum contulisse
accepimus Corneliam matrem, cujus doctissimus sermo in posteros quoque
est epistolis traditus._ Quint. lib. i. cap. 1. To the same effect
Cicero: _Fuit Gracchus diligentiâ Corneliæ matris a puero doctus, et
Græcis litteris eruditus._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 104. Again, Cicero says,
We have read the letters of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, from
which it appears, that the sons were educated, not so much in the lap
of their mother, as her conversation. _Legimus epistolas Corneliæ,
matris Gracchorum: apparet filios non tam in gremio educatos, quam in
sermone matris._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 211. Pliny the elder informs us
that a statue was erected to her memory, though Cato the Censor
declaimed against shewing so much honour to women, even in the
provinces. But with all his vehemence he could not prevent it in the
city of Rome. Pliny, lib. xxxiv. s. 14.
[c] For Aurelia, the mother of Julius Cæsar, see _The Genealogical
Table of the Cæsars_, No. 2.
[d] For Atia, the mother of Augustus, see _Genealogical Table of the
Cæsars_, No. 14. As another instance of maternal care, Tacitus informs
us that Julia Procilla superintended the education of her son. See
_Life of Agricola_, s. iv.