Αἰμιλία

The wife of Scipio the Great; she made a practice of participating in the women's processions with a show of pomp that was magnificent, since she reached her peak at the same time that the career and the fortune of Scipio did; for apart from the adorment of her body and her carriage, she took along with her on the noteworthy processions all the baskets and vessels and the other things used in the sacrifice, both silver and gold ones, and they were attended by a crowd of boys and servants following along. All of these trappings [that is, the possessions], immediately after Aemilia's burial, he bestowed upon his mother, who happened to have been divorced from Lucius for many years already, and who had less plentiful luxuries than what her noble birth had led her to expect. For this reason, though she had withdrawn in the previous year from the principal processions, when at that time as chance would have it there was a noteworthy city-wide sacrifice, she was carried out in the trappings and the luxuries of Aemilia, including, in addition to everything else, also the mule-drivers and the yoke-team, and the same carriage. As it happened the women who witnessed the event were amazed by the goodness and generosity of Scipio.