• This story of Trajan is told in nearly the same words, though in prose, in the Fiore di Filosofi , a work attributed to Brunetto Latini. See Nannucci, Manuale della Letteratura del Prima Secolo , in. 291. It may be found also in the Legenda Aurea , in the Cento Novelle Antiche , Nov. 67, and in the Life of St. Gregory , by Paulus Diaconus. As told by Ser Brunetto the story runs thus:⁠— “Trajan was a very just Emperor, and one day, having mounted his horse to go into battle with his cavalry, a woman came and seized him by the foot, and, weeping bitterly, asked him and besought him to do justice upon those who had without cause put to death her son, who was an upright young man. And he answered and said, ‘I will give thee satisfaction when I return.’ And she said, ‘And if thou dost not return?’ And he answered, ‘If I do not return, my successor will give thee satisfaction.’ And she said, ‘How do I know that? and suppose he do it, what is it to thee if another do good?