(no subject)

[timelets]

“The Vestal Virgin was raped and gave birth to twin boys. Mars, she declared, was their father – perhaps she believed it, perhaps she was merely hoping by the pretence to palliate her guilt. Whatever the truth of the matter, neither gods nor men could save her or her babes from the savage hands of the king. ”

-- Titus Livy. The Early History of Rome.

Passages like that help understand the daily brutality of history.