The examination was adjourned on that day, by the advice of the friends who were present. After a sufficient interval of time, they are summoned a second time. The examination is repeated all over again. No degree of the most terrible torture is emitted. The witnesses who had been summoned turned away, and could scarcely bear to witness it. The cruel and barbarous woman began to storm, and to be furious that her plans were not proceeding as she had hoped that they would. When the torturer and the very tortures themselves were worn out, and still she would not desist, one of the men who had been summoned as witnesses, a man distinguished by honours conferred on him by the people, and endued with the highest virtue, said that he plainly saw that the object was not to find out the truth, but to compel them to give some false evidence. After the rest had shown their approbation of these words, it was resolved by the unanimous opinion of them all, that the examination had been carried far enough.
Nicostratus is restored to Oppianicus;
Sassia goes to Larinum with her friends, grieving, because she thought that her son would
certainly be safe; since not only no true accusation could be proved against him, but there
could not be even any false suspicion made to attach to him, and since not only the open attacks
of his enemies were unable to injure him, but even the secret plots of his mother against him
proved harmless to him. After she came to Larinum, she, who had pretended to be persuaded that
poison had been previously given to her husband by that man