Vibius Marsus is a Roman senator. He is consul in the year 17 of our era. He is sent to summon Piso to Rome for his trial. 

Twentieth Discourse – Sappho to Erinna
                                             Sappho, Poetess of Lesbos

                                              Context 
      You will hear about Sappho, whose reputation has crossed centuries. Even  
Plato admired her and her image was engraved like a goddess on the coin of a grand 
people. We still have a form of poetry that bears her name, Sapphic verses, because it was  
her who created this meter that the great men of Greek and Roman antiquity  
attributed to the tenth Muse. I take this opportunity to encourage you to write  
verses like her in order to show women are capable of it and they are wrong to neglect  
such a pleasant activity. This is the subject of this address, addressed here to Erinna, and  
I especially dedicate it to the glory of women, as I have done throughout  
this volume. 

                                    Sappho to Erinna
      Erinna, I must eliminate today in you this self-doubt and misplaced shyness that prevent you from using your mind to its full potential.  
Before telling you about your particular merit, let me show you that of women in
general so that this understanding may more easily lead you to the goal of my  
words. Those who state that beauty is reserved for women, and that fine  
arts, literature and all the sublime and complicated sciences belong only  
to men, abusively excluding us, are as far from justice as truth.  
If this were the case, all women would be born beautiful and all men would have a  
high probability of becoming scholars. In other words, nature would be unfair in the  
distribution of its treasures. But we observe every day that ugliness is found among  
our sex and stupidity within the other.  
      If it were true that charm were the only advantage we received from heaven, not  
only all women would be beautiful, but I even believe they would remain so until  
their death, that time would respect in them what it destroys every moment, and having  
been sent on earth solely to display their splendour, they would therefore be beautiful as  
long as they were present. It would be really strange to live for a century thinking  
that only one thing could make us remarkable to others, and taking advantage  
only of the five or six years of glory that beauty can bring us, among all the  
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