Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK TEN
But do not with strong liquor flown
Knock at a time that's not your own.
His days to study he must give,
Composing speeches that shall live
With Tully's best, to please the ears
And win a verdict from the Peers.
More safe 'twill be to go a-calling
If lamps are lit and night is falling.
That is your hour, when reigns the rose,
When brows are wet, and Bacchus flows;
For when the Wine-god wildly rages
Stern Catos well may read my pages.
* XX
TO MA NI US
DEAR Manius, comrade of my boyhood's years,
Than whom none dearer in the land of Spain,
No man more worthy of my love appears,
'Tis you who make me wish to see again
My native homesteads and the golden shore
That Celtiberian Salo washed of yore.
If you were with me I would be content
To dwell in Afric village parched and dry,
With you beside to share my banishment
I would endure the cold of Scythia's sky:
Yea, every place to us a Rome would be
Where every thought is shared 'twixt you and me.
XXI
THE PEDA NT
WHY should you choose to make your verse obscure?
The most expert grammarians it amazes,
Till Bentley doubts and Porson is not sure
About the meaning of your crabbed phrases;
No mortal can appreciate your style,
It needs the intellect of an Apollo;
Think you that Virgil being clear is vile,
And Cinna nobler being hard to follow?
305 U