Later in life, a man would expect to find in his wife the one thing that he could not expect to find among his peers–honesty. Parrhesia, unflinching frankness with one’s fellows and superiors, was an infinitely rare and precious commodity. It could be had only from the only two authoritative figures who stood to one side of political life–from a philosopher and from one’s wife.
–Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity