§34.2.1“si in sua quisque nostrum matre familiae, Quirites, ius et maiestatem viri retinere instituisset, minus cum universis feminis negotii haberemus; §34.2.2nunc domi victa libertas nostra impotentia muliebri hic quoque in foro obteritur et calcatur, et, quia singulas non continuimus, §34.2.3universas horremus.
"If each of us, fellow citizens, had resolved to retain the right and majesty of a husband over his own wife, we should have less trouble with the whole sex; as it is, our liberty, conquered at home by female lack of control, is here also in the Forum trodden underfoot and trampled upon, and, because we did not keep them individually within bounds, we dread them collectively.
equidem fabulam et fictam rem ducebam esse, virorum omne genus in aliqua insula coniuratione muliebri ab stirpe sublatum esse; §34.2.4ab nullo genere non summum periculum est, si coetus et concilia et secretas consultationes esse sinas.
Indeed, I used to think it was a fable and a fiction that the entire male sex was utterly destroyed in a certain island by a conspiracy of women; there is the greatest danger from any class of people, if you allow gatherings, assemblies, and secret consultations.
atque ego vix statuere apud animum meum possum, utrum peior ipsa res an peiore exemplo agatur; §34.2.5quorum alterum ad nos consules reliquosque magistratus, alterum ad vos, Quirites, magis pertinet.
And I can scarcely decide in my own mind whether the thing itself is worse or is being done with a worse precedent; of which, the one more concerns us consuls and the other magistrates, the other concerns you, fellow citizens.
nam utrum e re publica sit necne id, quod ad vos fertur, vestra existimatio est, qui in suffragium ituri estis; §34.2.6haec consternatio muliebris, sive sua sponte sive auctoribus vobis, M. Fundani et L. Valeri, facta est, haud dubie ad culpam magistratuum pertinens, nescio, vobis, tribuni, an consulibus magis sit deformis: §34.2.7vobis, si feminas ad concitandas tribunicias seditiones iam adduxistis; nobis, si, ut plebis quondam, sic nunc mulierum secessione leges accipiendae sunt.
For whether what is proposed to you is in the interest of the republic or not is for your decision, who are about to go to vote; this female commotion—whether it occurred of their own accord or at your instigation, Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius—undoubtedly involving the fault of the magistrates, I know not whether it is more disgraceful to you, tribunes, or to the consuls: to you, if you have now brought women to stir up tribunician seditions; to us, if laws are to be accepted by us now through a secession of women, just as once through a secession of the plebs.
§34.2.8equidem non sine rubore quodam paulo ante per medium agmen mulierum in forum perveni.
Indeed, it was not without a certain blush that I arrived in the Forum a little while ago through the midst of the crowd of women.
quod nisi me verecundia singularum magis maiestatis et pudoris quam universarum tenuisset, ne compellatae a consule viderentur, §34.2.9dixissem: “qui hic mos est in publicum procurrendi et obsidendi vias et viros alienos appellandi? istud ipsum suos quaeque domi rogare non potuistis?
And had not a respect for the majesty and modesty of them individually rather than collectively restrained me, lest they should seem to be rebuked by a consul, I would have said: 'What custom is this of running out into public, blocking the streets, and addressing other women's husbands? Could you not have asked that very thing of your own husbands at home?
§34.2.10an blandiores in publico quam in privato et alienis quam vestris estis? quamquam ne domi quidem vos, si sui iuris finibus matronas contineret pudor, quae leges hic rogarentur abrogarenturve, curare decuit. ” §34.2.11maiores nostri nullam, ne privatam quidem rem agere feminas sine tutore auctore voluerunt, in manu esse parentium, fratrum, virorum; nos, si diis placet, iam etiam rem publicam capessere eas patimur et foro quoque et contionibus et comitiis immisceri.
Or are you more charming in public than in private, and to other men than to your own? Although, if modesty confined matrons within the limits of their own rights, it would not have been proper for you to care even at home what laws were proposed or repealed here.' Our ancestors willed that women should transact no business, not even private, without a guardian to authorize it, and that they should be under the control of parents, brothers, and husbands; we, heaven help us, now even allow them to take part in public affairs and to mingle in the Forum, the assemblies, and the elections.
§34.2.12quid enim nunc aliud per vias et compita faciunt, quam rogationem tribunorum plebi suadent, quam legem abrogandam censent?
For what else are they doing now in the streets and crossroads than supporting the proposal of the tribunes of the plebs and voting that the law should be repealed?
§34.2.13date frenos impotenti naturae et indomito animali et sperate ipsas modum licentiae facturas; §34.2.14nisi vos feceritis, minimum hoc eorum est, quae iniquo animo feminae sibi aut moribus aut legibus iniuncta patiuntur.
Give reins to an uncontrolled nature and an untamed animal, and hope that they themselves will set a limit to their license; unless you do it yourselves, this is the least of the things which women endure with discontent as imposed on them by custom or by laws.
omnium rerum libertatem, immo licentiam, si vere dicere volumus, desiderant.
They desire liberty in all things, or rather, if we wish to speak the truth, license."