“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.
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.