Controversia II AD
Calpurnius Flaccus - Exc. (Calpurnius FlaccusExc.40)
Text
Veneficii sit actio. Adulescens petit nuptias virginis a patre. Pater virginis ad uxorem retulit. illa respondit: “ante morietur, quam illi nubat.” Pater eidem adulescenti despondit et diem nuptiis dixit. Intra diem puella obiit dubiis signis cruditatis et veneni. Quaestionem cum de familia pater haberet, ex ancillis una confessa est adulterium cum illo iuvene matris intercessisse. Pater accusat veneficii matrem.
Translation
Let there be an action for poisoning. A young man asks the father of a young woman for her hand in marriage. The father of the young woman brings the news to his wife. She replies: “She will die before she marries him.” The father promised her in marriage to this same young man and set the date for the wedding. Before the appointed day the girl died with doubtful symptoms suggesting indigestion or poisoning. When the father was conducting an interrogation by torture of the households servants, one of the slave girls confessed that an adulterous relationship had existed between the mother and the young man in question. The father accuses the mother of poisoning.
Main Characters
Husband, Wife
Characters
Girl, Slave girls, Suitor
Issues
Accusations
Poisoning
Narrative themes
Adultery, Statement, Symptoms, Torture