[8,42] Ἀλλ´ εἰ καὶ τούτου δεῖσθε ὑμεῖς, ὦ γυναῖκες, καὶ πάντως θέλετε ἀσχημονούσας ἡμᾶς ἰδεῖν, ὑπολάβετε παρεῖναι πρὸς αὐτὸν κἀμὲ καὶ Οὐολουμνίαν ἀγούσας τὰ παιδία· τίνας ἐρῶ πρῶτον ἡ μήτηρ ἐγὼ πρὸς αὐτὸν λόγους, καὶ τίνα δέησιν ποιήσομαι τοῦ υἱοῦ; λέγετε καὶ διδάσκετέ με. φείσασθαι παρακαλῶ τῶν ἑαυτοῦ πολιτῶν, ὑφ´ ὧν ἐκ τῆς πατρίδος ἐξελήλαται καὶ μηθὲν ἀδικῶν; οἰκτίρμονα δὲ καὶ συμπαθῆ πρὸς τοὺς δημοτικοὺς γενέσθαι, παρ´ ὧν οὔτ´ ἐλέου μετέσχεν οὔτε συμπαθείας; ἐγκαταλιπεῖν δ´ ἄρα καὶ προδοῦναι τοὺς ὑποδεξαμένους αὐτοῦ τὴν φυγήν, οἳ πολλὰ καὶ δεινὰ πεπονθότες ὑπ´ αὐτοῦ πρότερον, οὐ πολεμίων μῖσος, ἀλλὰ φίλων καὶ συγγενῶν εὔνοιαν εἰς αὐτὸν ἀπεδείξαντο; τίνα ψυχὴν λαβοῦσα ἀξιώσω τὸν υἱὸν τὰ μὲν ἀπολέσαντα φιλεῖν, τὰ δὲ σώσαντα ἀδικεῖν; οὐκ εἰσὶν οὗτοι μητρὸς ὑγιαινούσης λόγοι πρὸς υἱὸν οὐδὲ γυναικὸς ἃ δεῖ λογιζομένης πρὸς ἄνδρα· μηδ´ ὑμεῖς βιάζεσθε, γυναῖκες, ἃ μήτε πρὸς ἀνθρώπους δίκαιά ἐστι μήτε πρὸς θεοὺς ὅσια, ταῦθ´ ἡμᾶς αἰτεῖσθαι παρ´ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ´ ἄφετε τὰς ἐλεεινάς, ὡς πεπτώκαμεν ὑπὸ τῆς τύχης, κεῖσθαι ταπεινὰς μηθὲν ἔτι πλέον ἀσχημονούσας.

[8,42] "But if you desire it so, women, and firmly wish to see us act an unbecoming part, just imagine that I and Volumnia with these children have come into his presence. What words shall I, his mother, first address to him and what request shall I make of my son? Tell me and instruct me. Shall I exhort him to spare his fellow citizens, by whom he was exiled from his country though guilty of no crime? To be merciful and compassionate to the plebeians, from whom he received neither mercy nor compassion? Or perhaps to abandon and betray those who received him when an east and, notwithstanding the many calamities he had previously inflicted on them, showed to him, not the hatred of enemies, but the affection of friends and relations? What courage can I pluck up to ask my son to love those who have ruined him and to injure those who have preserved him? These are not the words of a sane mother to her son nor of (p125) a wife who reasons as she should to her husband; nor ought you, either, women, to compel us to ask of him things that are neither just in the sight of men nor right in the eyes of the gods, but permit us miserable women to lie abased as we have been cast down by Fortune, committing no further unseemly act."