§10.23.1eo anno prodigia multa fuerunt, quorum averruncandorum causa supplicationes in biduum senatus decrevit; §10.23.2publice vinum ac tus praebitum; supplicatum iere frequentes viri feminaeque.
In that year there were many prodigies, for the purpose of averting which the senate decreed supplications for two days; wine and incense were provided at public expense, and numerous men and women went to offer supplications.
§10.23.3insignem supplicationem fecit certamen in sacello Pudicitiae patriciae, quod in foro bovario est ad aedem rotundam Herculis, inter matronas ortum.
A dispute that arose among the matrons in the shrine of Patrician Chastity, which is in the Forum Boarium near the round temple of Hercules, made the supplication memorable.
§10.23.4Verginiam, Auli filiam, patriciam plebeio nuptam, L. Volumnio consuli, matronae, quod e patribus enupsisset, sacris arcuerant.
The matrons had excluded Verginia, daughter of Aulus, a patrician married to a plebeian, the consul Lucius Volumnius, because she had married out of the patricians.
brevis altercatio inde ex iracundia muliebri in contentionem animorum exarsit, §10.23.5cum se Verginia et patriciam et pudicam in patriciae Pudicitiae templum ingressam et uni nuptam, ad quem virgo deducta sit, nec se viri honorumve eius ac rerum gestarum paenitere, ex vero gloriaretur.
Thence a brief altercation, arising from feminine anger, flared up into a passionate conflict, since Verginia boasted, with truth, that she had entered the temple of Patrician Chastity both as a patrician and as a chaste woman, and as married to only one man, to whom she had been led as a virgin, and that she was neither ashamed of her husband nor of his honors and deeds.
§10.23.6facto deinde egregio magnifica verba adauxit: in vico Longo, ubi habitabat, extrema parte aedium, quod satis esset loci modico sacello, exclusit aramque ibi posuit et convocatis plebeis matronis conquesta iniuriam patriciarum §10.23.7“hanc ego aram” inquit “Pudicitiae plebeiae dedico vosque hortor, ut, quod certamen virtutis viros in hac civitate tenet, §10.23.8hoc pudicitiae inter matronas sit detisque operam, ut haec ara quam illa, si quid potest, sanctius et a castioribus coli dicatur. ” §10.23.9eodem ferme ritu et haec ara, quo illa antiquior, culta est, ut nulla nisi spectatae pudicitiae matrona et quae uni viro nupta fuisset ius sacrificandi haberet.
Then she backed up her high words with an outstanding deed: in the Vicus Longus, where she lived, in the rear part of her house, she partitioned off what was enough space for a modest shrine, placed an altar there, and, having called together the plebeian matrons, complained of the injustice of the patrician women: "I dedicate this altar," she said, "to Plebeian Chastity; and I exhort you that, just as a contest of valor holds the men in this state, so there may be this contest of chastity among the matrons, and that you may exert yourselves so that this altar may be said to be worshipped more sacredly and by more chaste women than that one, if that is at all possible." This altar was worshipped with almost the same rite as that older one, so that no matron, except one of approved chastity who had been married to only one man, should have the right of sacrificing.
§10.23.10vulgata dein religio cum pollutis, nec matronis solum sed omnis ordinis feminis, postremo in oblivionem venit.
Then the cult became common, being polluted not only by matrons but by women of every class, and finally fell into oblivion.
eodem anno Cn. §10.23.11et Q. Ogulnii aediles curules aliquot faeneratoribus diem dixerunt; §10.23.12quorum bonis multatis ex eo, quod in publicum redactum est, aenea in Capitolio limina et trium mensarum argentea vasa in cella Iovis Iouemque in culmine cum quadrigis, et ad ficum Ruminalem simulacra infantium conditorum urbis sub uberibus lupae posuerunt semitamque saxo quadrato a Capena porta ad Martis straverunt.
In the same year, Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius, the curule aediles, brought to trial several usurers; from whose confiscated property, out of that which was brought into the public treasury, they placed bronze thresholds on the Capitol, silver vessels for three tables in the cella of Jupiter, and Jupiter in a chariot with four horses on the summit, and near the Ruminal fig tree they set up statues of the infant founders of the city under the teats of the she-wolf, and paved with squared stone a footpath from the Capena gate to the temple of Mars.
§10.23.13et ab aedilibus plebeis L. Aelio Paeto et C. Fulvio Curvo ex multaticia item pecunia, quam exegerunt pecuariis damnatis, ludi facti pateraeque aureae ad Cereris positae.
And by the plebeian aediles, Lucius Aelius Paetus and Gaius Fulvius Curvus, likewise from the fine money which they exacted from condemned cattle-breeders, games were celebrated and golden bowls were placed at the temple of Ceres.