Hortensia (orator) - Speech Before The Second Triumvirate

Speech Before The Second Triumvirate

In 42 B.C., nearly all of Rome's state-sponsored military legions, which were under the command of triumvirs Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Marcus Antonius, were at war with the assassins of Julius Caesar (Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus). To fund the ongoing war, the triumvirs had resorted to selling the property of wealthy citizens killed by proscription; however, this source of revenue did not prove to be lucrative enough, and the three men voted to place a tax on Rome's 1400 most wealthy women. The women, outraged at having been taxed for a war they had no control over, chose Hortensia to articulate their concerns to the triumvirs. Along with a large group of interested citizens, the women marched to the Roman Forum, where Hortensia delivered her famous speech. Below is an excerpt from the speech as documented by the Greek historian Appian:

"You have already deprived us of our fathers, our sons, our husbands, and our brothers, whom you accused of having wronged you; if you take away our property also, you reduce us to a condition unbecoming our birth, our manners, our sex. Why should we pay taxes when we have no part in the honours, the commands, the state-craft, for which you contend against each other with such harmful results? 'Because this is a time of war,' do you say? When have there not been wars, and when have taxes ever been imposed on women, who are exempted by their sex among all mankind?"