In Greece those social customs—­still recognizable in Homer and the early mythology—­had in the sixth century been overwhelmed by a back-flow of Aegean society, when the northern aristocracy was compelled to surrender to the native element which constituted the backbone of the democracy.  With the re-emergence of the Aegean society, in which woman was relegated to a menial position, the possibility of a genuine romantic literature naturally came to an end.

At Rome there was no such cataclysm during the centuries of the Republic.  Here the old stock though somewhat mixed with Etruscans, survived.  The ancient aristocracy retained its dominant position in the state and society, and its mores even penetrated downward.  They were not stifled by new southern customs welling up from below, at least not until the plebeian element won the support of the founders of the empire, and finally overwhelmed the nobility.  At Rome during the Republic there was no question of social inequality between the sexes, for though in law the patriarchal clan-system, imposed by the exigencies of a migrating group, made the father of the family responsible for civil order, no inferences were drawn to the detriment of the mother’s position in the household.  Nepos once aptly remarked:  “Many things are considered entirely proper here which the Greeks hold to be indelicate.  No Roman ever hesitates to take his wife with him to a social dinner.  In fact, our women invariably have the seat of honor at temples and large gatherings.  In such matters we differ wholly from the Greeks.”

Indeed the very persistence of a nobility was in itself a favorable factor in establishing a better position for women.  Not only did the accumulation of wealth in the household and the persistence of courtly manners demand respect for the domina of the villa, but the transference of noble blood and of a goodly inheritance of name and land through the mother’s hand were matters of vital importance.  The nobility of the senate moreover long controlled the foreign policy of the empire, and as the empire grew the men were called away to foreign parts on missions and legations.  At such times, the lady in an important household was mistress of large affairs.  It has been pointed out as a significant fact that the father of the Gracchi was engaged for long years in ambassadorial and military duties.  The training of the lads consequently fell to the share of Cornelia, a fact which may in some measure account for the humanitarian interests of those two brilliant reformers.  The responsibilities that fell upon the shoulders of such women must have stimulated their keenest powers and thus won for them the high esteem which, in this case, we know the sons accorded their mother.  One does not soon forget the scene (Cicero, Ad Att.  XV, II) at which Brutus and Cassius together with their wives, Porcia and Tertia, and Servilia, the mother of Brutus, discussed momentous decisions with