Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

LXXVI
THE TOADY
To feasts and theatres you love to go
With men of rank and, when you chance to meet,
To lounge with them about a portico
Or street.
They let you bathe and dine with them, but what
Your dullard pride will never comprehend
Is that you are their mountebank, and not
Their friend.
LXXVII
PRESENTATION COPIES
PRESENT you with my books? Not I indeed.
I know you want to sell them, not to read.
LXXVIII
POOR FOR HIMSELF
You dine on skate-or now and then
On greasy beans; what is the reason
That makes you send to other men
The rarest dainties of the season?
Boar, oysters, truffles, mullet, hare,
You give them. What an aberration,
To grudge yourself that generous fare
And spend your all on ostentation.
LXXIX.4 CHOICE BRAND
HE gave Consular wine when he asked me to dine,
'What! Opimius' vintage? ' you say,
' Tis a brand of renown.' Nay, my host laid it down,
And he was made consul to-day.
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