Book 3
2
I have read that Quintus Mucius, the jurist, also used to say Fr. 7, Huschke; Jur. Civ. iv. 2, Bremer. that a woman did not become her own mistress who, after entering upon marriage relations with a man on the day called the Kalends of January, left him, for the purpose of emancipating herself, on the fourth day before the Kalends of the following January; Dec. 27th; December at that time had twenty-nine days. for the period of three nights, during which the Twelve Tables vi. 4. provided that a woman must be separated from her husband for the purpose of gaining her independence, could not be completed, since the last Posterioris is nom. pl. See Varro De Ling. Lat. viii. 66. six hours of the third night belonged to the next year, which began on the first of January.
2
Now since I found all the above details about the duration and limits of days, pertaining to the observance and the system of ancient law, in the works of our early writers, I did not doubt that Virgil also indicated the same thing, not directly and openly, but, as became one treating poetic themes, by an indirect and as it were veiled allusion to ancient observance. He says: Aen. v. 738. For dewy Night has wheeled her way Far past her middle course; the panting steeds Of orient Morn breathe pitiless on me. For in these lines he wished to remind us covertly, as I have said, that the day which the Romans have called civil begins after the completion of the sixth hour of the night.
