The Revenge Of A Guilty Woman Is

The Historian Must Have Some Conception Of How Men Who Are Not Historians Behave.

It Was Among The Ruins Of The Capitol That I First Conceived The Idea Of A Work Which Has Amused And Exercised Nearly Twenty Years Of My Life.

The Brutal Soldiers Satisfied Their Sensual Appetites Without Consulting Either The Inclination Or The Duties Of Their Female Captives; And A Nice Question Of Casuistry Was Seriously Agitated, Whether Those Tender Victims, Who Had Inflexibly Refused Their Consent To The Violation Which They Sustained, Had Lost, By Their Misfortune, The Glorious Crown Of Virginity. There Were Other Losses Indeed Of A More Substantial Kind And More General Concern.

The History Of Empires Is The Record Of Human Misery; The History Of The Sciences Is That Of The Greatness And Happiness Of Mankind.

Women [in Ancient Rome] Were Condemned To The Perpetual Tutelage Of Parents, Husbands, Or Guardians; A Sex Created To Please And Obey Was Never Supposed To Have Attained The Age Of Reason And Experience. Such, At Least, Was The Stern And Haughty Spirit Of The Ancient Law . . .