Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

Or should he be on wharf or quay, a panic will prevail,
The sailors haste-no time they waste in furling every sail;
It frightens, too, great Isis' crew; her shaveling devotees
Are linen clad, they run like mad before Hermogenes.
All folk agree wherever he may dine, there's not a doubt,
When dinner's done he'll leave with one although he came
without.
XXX
ON A PER
HE'S sober and abstemious? One commends
These qualities in slaves, but not in friends.
XXXI
MARCELLA'S GIFT
THE grove, the woven shade of arching vine,
The streams, the runnels in their conduit clear,
Fields, roses-Paestum's hardly vie with mineThe herbs that never know a winter drear,
The pond that teems with eels, the dovecote there,
All snowy-white, for whiter doves a shrine,
My lady gave when I returned to Spain
After long years; Pheacia's realm divine
Nausicaa should offer me in vain:
'Tis in Marcella's I would choose to reign.
XXXII
M1OVI.NG DAY
VACERRA, when you moved on quarter-day
I saw your household goods, a foul displayMost had been seized for two years' rent unpaidBorne by your wife, a carrot-headed jade,
-Seven hairs were left to prove the fact, no lessYour sister, hideous, blousy giantcss,
Trudged with the hag, your mother (truth to tell
I thought them furies coming up from hell).
382