Parentalia VI. — Aemilia Hilaria, my Mother's Sister, an Avowed Virgin

You too who, though in kinship's degree an aunt, were to me a mother, must now be recalled with a son's affection, Aemilia, who in the cradle gained the second name of Hilarus (Blithesome), because, bright and cheerful after the fashion of a boy, you made without pretence the very picture of a lad . . . busied in the art of healing, like a man. You ever hated your female sex, and so there grew up in you the love of consecrated maidenhood. Through three and sixty years you maintained it, and your life's end was also a maiden's end. You cherished me with your precepts and your love as might a mother; and therefore as a son I make you this return at your last rites.