Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

XCIII
THE GODS' MISTAKE
A POET'S house consumed by fire!
Phoebus and ye, the heavenly choir,
What vengeance will ye now require
For such a fell disaster?
How foul a deed, how black a shame!
Can men acquit the gods of blame
When they delivered to the flame
The house and not its master?
XCIV
TO AN ENVIOUS JEW RIVAL
OF course you envy all I write or do,
But that is pardonable in a Jew;
You steal the verse you sneer about; this too
Is naught and shows some wisdom for a Jew.
But now you dare my loved one to pursue,
Must I endure that insult from a Jew?
You swear by Jove you do not? That's untrue:
Swear by your Syrian gods, you perjured Jew!
XCV
INCIDERIS quotiens in basia fellatorum,
In solium puta te mergere, Flacce, caput.
XCVI
ON A GERi1IAN W1HO DROI'E A. ROM1AN BOY
FROM THE I.ARCIAN AQUEDUCT
THIS is the Marcian stream; afar
Doth flow your native Rhine;
Yet from the fount you dare debar
One of the victor's line!
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