60. Study Questions Copy

It had previously been the custom for Roman senators to enter the senate house with their sons. When once a great matter about which the senators were discussing was postponed to the following day, the mother of Papirius asked the boy who had been in the senate house with his father what the senators had been doing. However, all who had been in the senate house had been ordered to be silent about this matter. Therefore, the boy replied that he would say nothing However his mother asked him again and again.

Therefore, finally Papirius invented a witty story. For he said that the senators were discussing whether a man should have two wives, or whether a woman should have two husbands. When his mother heard this, immediately leaving the house, she announced to the other women what her son had said. Therefore, all those women hurried to the senate house, When the senators arrived, the begged that one woman should have two husbands. On hearing these words, the senators were amazed because they didn’t know why the women were demanding such a thing. Then the boy Papirius stood up  and told everyone what his mother had asked, and what he himself had said to his mother.