Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK FIVE
XXI
PELMANISM
No name of old could he recall,
But always mixed them thus,
A Mr. Gross was Mr. Small,
And Quintus Decimus;
But now his greetings are correct,
Each name he rightly quotes;
How much can care and toil effect,
He learned them from his notes!
* XXII
TO PAULUS
IF I did not this morning deserve your 'good day,'
May your Esquiline house be still further away.
But I by the Tiburtine column reside,
Where the temple of Flora has Jove by its side,
And thence from Suburra the steep hill I climb,
The path dirty stones and all reeking with grime,
Where it's no easy matter to get through a drove
Of mules pulling hard as the marble they move,
And what is much worse, when at last I have come,
Worn out to your house, all I get's-' Not at home.'
That is all my reward for a walk in the rain,
And it's scarce worth the trouble this journey in vain.
You're so busy yourself your friends on you can't wait:
So you won't be my patron unless you sleep late.
XXIII
THE KNIGHT'S PRIVILEGE
You sat where'er you chose in raiment coarse,
What time the slumbering law you dared to slight;
But now our censor doth that law enforce,
And stern Oceanus maintains the right,
You flaunt in purple and in scarlet bright.
Can that deceive us? Nay, the chance is small.
If clothes could prove the title of a knight,
Cordus had won his spurs before us all.

I45

K