Macrobius, a Latin writer from the 4th-5th century AD, in the "Saturnalia", recounts the story of Papirio, a young man from an important Roman aristocratic family, who tells his mother a huge lie in order to keep a secret and honor a commitment, encouraging Roman matrons to protest against the Senate.

In the early Republican era, it was customary for senators to be accompanied to the Senate by very young sons. Papirio was present on a day when a very delicate and important topic was being discussed, so much so that, not reaching a common agreement, the assembly decided to postpone the discussion to the next day recommending maximum secrecy.

Papirio's mother insisted on knowing the topic of the session, but Papirio, in order to remain faithful to his commitment to silence, told her that the topic was whether it would be better and more beneficial for the State to allow men to have two wives or women to have two husbands.

The lie was so paradoxical that it should have appeared as such to his mother, but her curiosity and inability to hold her tongue led the matron to immediately inform others.

The next day, the matrons appeared at the entrance of the Senate loudly demanding that the motion allowing women to have two husbands be approved and the opposite one rejected.

The senators were astonished by what was happening until Papirio spoke in the Senate explaining what had occurred. Papirio was praised by the senators for his wisdom, despite his young age, for not confiding in a woman, not even his own mother, about the debated topic as women themselves were considered genetically incapable of keeping a secret.

According to the Romans, women's speech had to be restrained. Plutarch, in "Marital Precepts", wrote that a matron should not speak in public because "speaking is like being naked" according to a rule dating back to King Numa regarding the relationship between female speech and modesty, so much so that women honored the goddess Tacita Muta, a chatty nymph whose tongue Jupiter, according to Ovid, had taken away as punishment.