Instead of asking how Martius came to marry Marcia, had you been acquainted with the recent past history of this neighborhood, Opsitius, you would have asked how most of the rest of us managed to escape marrying her." "A freedwoman!" cried Tanno.
"A most unusual freedwoman," Hirnio asserted, "as she was almost a portent as a slave-girl.

Haven't you ever heard of her, Opsitius ?" "We Romans," Tanno bantered, "are lamentably ignorant on the life- histories of brood-sows, slave-girls, prize-heifers and such-like notabilities of Sabinum." "She is no Sabine," Hirnio retorted, "but, as far as the locality of her birth and upbringing goes, is as Roman as you are.

Did you never hear of Ummidius Quadratus ?" "Hush!" Tanno breathed.

"I have heard of the man you have named, heard of him on the deaf side of my head, as did all Rome.

But, in the name of Minerva, do not utter his name.