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preferring the stranger to her own. But she, knowing why she preferred that one, was not at all vexed by the reproaches, but smiling gently and affably at the very hurtful things they said to her, she gave their words to the breezes. For some time, then, the woman, "abiding by the agreements," changed her wicked life and was adorned with the beauties of modesty. At any rate, I saw her, spontaneously modest and beautiful, for she cast down her eyes and covered her whole face with shame, and she approached the divine temples and had her head under a veil, and, if she saw anyone suddenly, she would immediately blush; and "she was careless" of her body, neither adorning her hands with rings nor shoeing her feet with elaborate and flower-dyed leathers; thus she was entirely transformed and had precisely moved to the opposite state. But the change was limited in time and, before the habit could take root, she slipped back into her former way of life. O the deception, O the sudden transformation back again! But this, it seems, was hidden from the sister, and while the one was guilty of prostitution, the other, as if she were completely changed, loved and cared for her exceedingly. But she, too, it seems, was about to learn of what was hidden; and here for me is the sweetest and saddest part of the story. And the account will judge between them both. The sister, being pregnant at that time, had come to the very pains of childbirth; but she was, it seems, in difficult labor "and was badly off" for giving birth. And the women attending the labor pains bustled about and attended her, rousing these pains and letting them subside and preparing the infant for the slippery passage. And she who wore the pretense of modesty also shared in their midwifery, and the sister relied on her more than on the midwives. At which one of them, growing jealous, said: "But it is from this one that your difficult labor comes; for pregnant women are not permitted to give their hands to those in labor. For this, perhaps, the women's quarter legislates." And the sister said: "And who among you here, then, is pregnant?"; and she at once pointed to that one and, taking hold of her tunic, revealed her belly. At this the sister nearly expired and, forgetting her labor pains, her soul was rent by unspeakable pains at the news; but not even so was she bereft of her noble spirit, but she urged the one to flee at once to the ends of the earth, while for herself the birth immediately went well and "the infant leaped forth." This one nature brought forth paradoxically with the first "beauty of the season" and more paradoxically death took her away, leaving her irresistible loveliness in her image, and not plundering it from there, I think, because it could not. 15. I, then, when this happened, was living in the country before the city, having traveled a short way with a certain man most noble in letters, who was entrusted with judging no small part of the western section. I, then, for the first time left the city and saw the enclosing wall, and I might say the entire countryside, being sixteen years old and having a maturity greater than my years, having just been released from listening to poems and having glanced into the art of rhetoric with grace. But upon my sister, as my parents later said, a terrible disease fell upon her inward parts, and her liver was at once ulcerated, and then indeed also swelling, and her entire body was consumed by an inner fire, and her nature gave way, yielding to the dominant power, and not yet wasted by the consuming illness, she died with her body still blooming and full of flesh. How much, then, immediately happened from my parents at this suffering the account will later show, but for now let it hold to what follows. Since, then, my sister had perished "before her time" and it was not possible for my parents to be released from what had happened, they feared no less for me, lest, struck by the unexpectedness of the news, I should add a suffering to their suffering, no less to a very great one; for they knew our mutual sympathy and how with the part that had perished almost the whole

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οἰκείων τὴν ἀλλοτρίαν προκρίνουσαν. ἡ δὲ εἰδυῖα ἐφ' ὅτῳ προετίμα ἐκείνην οὐ μάλα τοὺς ὀνειδισμοὺς ἐδυσχέραινεν, ἀλλ' ἡμέρως καὶ προσηνῶς μειδιῶσα ἐφ' οἷς ἐκεῖναι πληκτικώτατα αὐτῇ προσῄεσαν, αὔραις τοὺς λόγους ἐδίδου. χρόνον μὲν οὖν τινα ἡ γυνὴ «ταῖς συνθήκαις ἐμμένουσα» μετήλλαξε τὴν φαύλην ζωὴν καὶ σωφροσύνης ἐκεκόσμητο κάλλεσι. κἀγὼ γοῦν αὐτὴν ἐθεασάμην αὐτομάτως σώφρονα καὶ καλήν, τό τε γὰρ ὄμμα κατήνεγκε καὶ ξύμπαν τὸ πρόσωπον αἰδοῖ κατεκάλυψε, θείοις τε προσῄει ναοῖς καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν εἶχεν ὑπὸ καλύπτρᾳ καί, εἴ τινα ἴδοι ἐξαπιναίως, εὐθὺς ἠρυθραίνετο· «ἀτημελήτως τε εἶχε» τοῦ σώματος, οὔτε τὰς χείρας δακτυλίοις καταποικίλλουσα οὔτε τοὺς πόδας περιέργοις καὶ ἀνθοβαφέσι σκύτεσιν ὑποδέουσα· οὕτως ὅλη μεταπεποίητο καὶ ἀκριβῶς εἰς τὴν ἐναντίαν ἕξιν μετακεκίνητο. Ἀλλ' ὥριστο καιρῷ ἡ μεταβολὴ καί, πρὶν ἢ πῆξιν τὸ ἔθος λαβεῖν, εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον εἶδος τῆς ζωῆς ὑπωλίσθησεν. ὢ τῆς πλάνης, ὢ τῆς ἀθρόας αὖθις μεταποιήσεως. ἐλάνθανε δὲ τοῦτο ἄρα τὴν ἀδελφήν, καὶ ἡ μὲν ἑταιρήσεως εἶχεν αἰτίαν, ἡ δὲ ὡς καθάπαξ μεταβεβλημένη διαφερόντως ἔστεργέ τε καὶ ἐθεράπευεν. ἔμελλε δὲ ἄρα κἀκείνην γνῶσιν τοῦ κεκρυμμένου λαβεῖν· κἀνταῦθά μοι τὸ τῆς διηγήσεως ἥδιστόν τε καὶ σκυθρωπότατον. διαιτήσει δὲ ὁ λόγος ἀμφοῖν. Κύουσα τηνικαῦτα ἡ ἀδελφὴ πρὸς ταῖς ὠδῖσιν αὐταῖς ἐγεγόνει· ἐδυστόκει δὲ ἄρα «καὶ πονήρως εἶχε» τῆς ἀποτέξεως. αἱ δὲ περὶ τὰς ὠδῖνας περιεῖπόν τε καὶ ἀμφεπόλευον, ἐγείρουσαι ταύτας καὶ ἀνιεῖσαι καὶ τοῖς ὀλίσθοις τὸ βρέφος διευτρεπίζουσαι. ἐκοινώνει δὲ τῆς μαιείας αὐταῖς καὶ ἡ τὸ πλάσμα τῆς σωφροσύνης περικειμένη καὶ ἡ ἀδελφὴ ἐκείνῃ μᾶλλον ἢ ταῖς μαίαις προσανεπαύετο. περὶ ὅ τις ἐκείνων ζηλοτυπήσασα· «ἀλλ' ἐκ ταύτης σοι-φησί-τὸ δυστοκεῖν· ἐγκύοις γὰρ οὐκ ἀνεῖται διδόναι τὰς χεῖρας ταῖς ἐν ὠδίσι. τοῦτο γὰρ ἴσως ἡ γυναικωνίτις νομοθετεῖ». ἡ δὲ ἀδελφή· «καὶ τίς ἄρα-φησίν- ἐνταῦθ' ὑμῶν κύει;»· ἡ δὲ αὐτίκα ἐκείνην ἐδείκνυ καὶ τὸν χιτῶνα διαλαβοῦσα προὔφαινε τὴν γαστέρα. ἐνταῦθα μικροῦ δεῖν ἐξεπεπνεύκει ἡ ἀδελφὴ καί, τῶν ὠδίνων ἐπιλαθομένη, ὀδύναις ἀρρήτοις ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ διῄρητο τὴν ψυχήν· ἀλλ' οὐδ' οὕτως τοῦ γενναίου ἀπολέλειπτο λήμματος, ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν εὐθὺς φυγεῖν ἐπ' ἔσχατα παρεκελεύσατο γῆς, τῇ δὲ αὐτίκα ὁ τόκος ὡραίως τε εἶχε καὶ «τὸ βρέφος ἐξέθορε». ταύτην παραδόξως ἡ φύσις ἐβλάστησε μετὰ τοῦ πρώτου «κάλλους τῆς ὥρας» καὶ παραδοξότερον ἐξεῖλεν ὁ θάνατος, κἀν τῷ εἰδώλῳ τὴν ἀμήχανον εὐμορφίαν ἀφεὶς καὶ μὴ συλήσας ἐκεῖθεν, οἶμαι, μὴ δυνηθείς. 15. Ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν τηνικαῦτα συμβὰν οὕτω ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τῆς πόλεως διῃτώμην ἀγροῖς, ἀνδρί τινι τῶν πάνυ γενναίων περὶ τοὺς λόγους βραχύ τι συναποδημήσας, πεπιστευμένῳ δικάζειν οὐ σμικρὸν μέρος τοῦ ἑσπερίου τμήματος. ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν τότε πρῶτον ἐξῆλθον τῆς πόλεως καὶ τὸ περιφράττον τεθέαμαι τεῖχος, εἰπεῖν δὲ καὶ ξύμπαν τὸ ὕπαιθρον, ἐκκαιδεκέτης ὢν καὶ μείζονα ἔχων τοῦ χρόνου τὴν ἡλικίαν, ἄρτι τοῦ ποιημάτων ἀκούειν ἀπαλλαγεὶς καὶ παρακύψας εἰς τὴν τῶν λόγων τέχνην σὺν χάριτι. τῇ δέ μοι ἀδελφῇ, ὡς ὕστερον ἔφασαν οἱ γεννήτορες, νόσος ἐνσκήπτει περὶ τοῖς σπλάγχνοις δεινὴ καὶ τὸ μὲν ἦπαρ ὕπουλον εὐθὺς ἦν, εἶτα δὴ καὶ οἰδοῦν, πυρί τε μυχίῳ τὸ ξύμπαν κατεπίμπρατο σῶμα καὶ ἡ φύσις ὑπεδίδου, τῷ δυναστεύοντι εἴκουσα καὶ οὔπω δαπανηθεῖσα τῷ τήκοντι ἐπ' ἀνθηρῷ ἔτι καὶ εὐσάρκῳ ἐτεθνήκει τῷ σώματι. ὁπόσα μὲν οὖν εὐθὺς συμβεβήκει παρὰ τῶν γεννησαμένων ἐπὶ τῷ πάθει ὕστερον ὁ λόγος δηλώσει, νῦν δὲ ἐχέσθω τῶν ἐφεξῆς. Ἐπεὶ οὖν μοι ἡ ἀδελφὴ «πρὸ ὥρας» ἀπόλωλε καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἀναλυθῆναι τοῖς γονεῦσι τὸ γεγονός, οὐχ ἧττον ἐπ' ἐμοὶ ἐδεδοίκεσαν μὴ τῷ τῆς ἀκοῆς ἀπροσδοκήτῳ καταπλαγεὶς πάθος αὐτοῖς πάθει συνάψω, μεγίστῳ οὐκ ἔλαττον· ᾔδεισαν γὰρ ἡμῖν ἀλλήλοις τὸ σύμπνουν καὶ ὡς τῷ μέρει ἀπολωλότι τὸ πᾶν σχεδὸν