Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS
* LVI
THE VOYAGE
SPENDOPHORUS must on his lord attend
And soon to Libya his way will wend.
Give him, dear Love, a wand and those soft darts
Wherewith thou woundest eager lovers' hearts.
Cuirass and shield and helm I leave to thee,
He will be safe if naked he shall be,
E'en as Parthenopaeus felt no blow
From foemen's dart while they could see his brow.
But whomsoe'er he pierces straight will die
Of love-how happy in death's agony!
0 beauty bright, from Africa come home
And grow to manhood here with us in Rome.
* LVII
COIIPARISONS
THERE is nothing worn smoother than Hedylus' cloak:
Not the neck of a mule that has long known the yoke,
Not the handle of some old Corinthian jar,
Not the ramshackle wheel of a slow-moving car,
Not the leg that for ten years a fetter has borne,
Not the hoe that long usage in vineyards has worn,
Not pebbles nor ruts on our northern highway,
Not a pauper's wan toga who's seen his last day,
Not a bison's posterior scraped by the cage,
Not the tusk of a boar savage in his old age;
Yes, there is just one thing: and he will not deny it;
The place where he sits on's more smooth, if you try it.
LVIII
ON A LAKE TEMIPLE BUILT BY SABINUS
QUEEN- of the hallowed lake, with pious care
Sabinus built thy fane that shall endure,
And long may Umbrian hillmen worship there,
Thy townsmen never yield to Baiae's lure;
If these my timid books thy favour share
My Muse shall greet thee as her fountain pure.
Say'st thou, ' who gives his book to nymphs to keep
Must own their proper grave is in the deep'?
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