Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

* LXVIII
THE DEATH OF EUTY'CHOS
WEEP for your crime, weep o'er the Lucrine lake,
Ye Naiads, till your cries e'en Thetis wake.
For Eutychos 'neath Baiae's waves you drew
And for my Castricus his comrade slew,
Who was his comfort and his chiefest joy,
Loved by our bard as Virgil loved his boy.
Did the nymph see thee naked in the mere
And give Alcides back his Hylas dear?
Or does the goddess in thy love delight
And for thy arms neglect Hermaphrodite?
Whate'er the cause of rape so sudden be,
Let earth, I pray, and wave be kind to thee.
* LXIX
A PROBLEM
I DON'T wonder your Bassa wants water to drink;
But why should her daughter? I really can't think.
LXX
HEALTH IS IVEALTH
His sixtieth harvest-tide is done,
Nay more, yet by his own confession,
Of all his days no single one
Was lost by fever's fell oppression.
At Dason, Alcon, Symmachus,
He points a gay and mocking finger;
Ah, friend, 'tis different with us,
Though long our life may seem to linger.
Fevel and weariness and painOf many days have these bereft us;
Leave these unrcckoned, few remain,
And little of real life is left us.
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