1How much it matters by whom a thing is done! 1For the same deeds are either raised to the heights or pressed down to the depths by the fame or the obscurity of those who do them. 2I was sailing on our Lake Larius when an older friend pointed out to me a villa, and also a bedroom that juts out over the lake: 'From this,' he said, 'a woman of our town once threw herself down with her husband.' 3I asked the reason. 3The husband, after a long illness, was rotting with ulcers about the parts that are kept covered; 3his wife insisted on examining him; 3for no one, she said, would tell him more faithfully whether he could be cured.
4She saw, she despaired, she urged him to die, and she herself was the companion of his death, or rather his leader, his example and his compulsion; 4for she tied herself to her husband and threw herself into the lake. 5This deed was not heard even by me, a fellow townsman, until very recently, not because it was lesser than that famous deed of Arria's, but because she herself was of lesser rank. 5Farewell.