Rough Roman Memes

“Raptam esse mimulam.” Quod dicitur Atinae factum a iuventute, vetere quodam in scenicos iure maximeque oppidano. O adolescentiam traductam eleganter! cui quidem cum, quod licuerit, obiiciatur, tamen id ipsum falsum reperiatur.

“A little mime-actress is said to have been raped.” It’s said that this was done at Atina by a group of youths, using a certain old custom allowed at the scenic games, especially in country towns. What an honorably-conducted young manhood! He is reproached with something he was permitted to do, and yet that very reproach is found to be baseless.

• Cicero defending a rapist's 'character'

While Julius Caesar would later pass a law unambiguously demanding the death penalty for all rapists of free individuals, this poor girl was about ten years too early to be served justice by the law.