Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

* LXXXVIII
TO CAECILIANUS
I CHANCED yesterday on my patron to call
And used his bare name without titles at all.
Do you ask what it cost me, this freedom of tongue?
I was docked of my dole, and I'm half-a-crown wrong.
* LXXXIX
FULL MEASURE
WHEN our friend Squire Allgood had got through a lot
Of liquor last night, he called loud for a pot.
So they brought him a jar which himself he had drained
And alone put away all the wine it contained,
While he then most exactly and quite at his leisure
Repaid to the vessel his debt in full measure.
Do you wonder the jar all his liquor could hold?
There's no need, my good friend: he drinks neat, I am told.
* XC
TO GELLIA
'I HAVE only one lover '-you loudly persist.
The sin is the worse: you're a rank bigamist.
* XCI
TO ZOILUS
OUR lord's sacred edicts adultery ban.
But you need not fear; for you are not a man.
XCII
THE TOKEN
A SNAKE round Ammianus' cup doth twine,
Wrought there by Myron's art: i'faith, 'tis fit
His cup should bear a serpent as a sign
Of the vile poison that he drinks from it.
I92