Moreover Numa's regulations about young girls were of a
much more feminine and orderly nature, while those of Lykurgus were so
highflown and unbecoming to women, as to have been the subject of notice
by the poets, who call them _Phainomerides_, that is with bare thighs,
as Ibykus says; and they accuse them of lust, as Euripides says--
"They stay not, as befits a maid, at home,
But with young men in shameless dresses roam."
For in truth the sides of the maiden's tunic were not fastened together
at the skirt, and so flew open and exposed the thigh as they walked,
which is most clearly alluded to in the lines of Sophokles--
"She that wanders nigh,
With scanty skirt that shows the thigh,
A Spartan maiden fair and free,
Hermione."
On this account they are said to have become bolder than they should be,
and to have first shown this spirit towards their husbands, ruling
uncontrolled over their households, and afterwards in public matters,
where they freely expressed their opinions upon the most important
subjects. On the other hand, Numa preserved that respect and honour due
from men to matrons which they had met with under Romulus, who paid them
these honours to atone for having carried them off by force, but he
implanted in them habits of modesty, sobriety, and silence, forbidding
them even to touch wine, or to speak even when necessary except in their
husbands' presence.
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