Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK SEVEN

LXXIII
TO MAXIMUS
ONE house upon the Esquiline,
One where patricians dwell,
And hard beside Diana's shrine
You have a third as well.
You live near mournful Cybele,
You've Vesta's fane in view;
Jove's ancient temple you can see,
You look upon the new.
With seven dwellings I despair
To find you when I call,
He who has mansions everywhere
Has not a home at all.
* LXXIV
TO THE GOD MERCURY
CYLLENE'S glory, heaven's pride, thou messenger with
cunning tongue,
Whose golden wand with coiling snake doth splendid shine
the gods among,
May thou thy stolen loves attain, fair Venus or young
Ganymede,
And may thy mother's Ides adorned with bay proclaim some
noble deed,
And Atlas bear a lighter load, if Carpus and Norbana now
To celebrate the nuptial day when first they met thou wilt
allow.
A pious priest of wisdom he to wisdom pays his gift of love,
Sending his incense up to thee and faithful also unto Jove.
* LXXV
TO AN AMOROUS OLD WOM1AN
You are ancient and ugly and haven't got money:
But yet you expect your full share of love's honey.
219