“Raptam esse mimulam.” Quod dicitur Atinae factum a iuventute, vetere quodam in scenicos iure maximeque oppidano. O adolescentiam traductam eleganter! cui quidem cum, quod licuerit, obiiciatur, tamen id ipsum falsum reperiatur.
“A little mime-actress is said to have been raped.” It’s said that this was done at Atina by a group of youths, using a certain old custom allowed at the scenic games, especially in country towns. What an honorably-conducted young manhood! He is reproached with something he was permitted to do, and yet that very reproach is found to be baseless.
- Cicero defending a rapist’s ‘character’
While Julius Caesar would later pass a law unambiguously demanding the death penalty for all rapists of free individuals, this poor girl was about ten years too early to be served justice by the law.
Well - if she would have been a slave that law change wouldn’t have done anything for her either, or would it?
If she was a slave it wouldn’t have helped her, unfortunately.
However, it probably would not have even been mentioned by Cicero (or the rapist’s enemies, for that matter) if she was a slave.
