Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS
* LXXIX
TO A TTICILLA
WHAT yOU ask for I always have given-and more;
Yet you still keep on asking, the same as before.
If a man does not know when the word should be ' No,'
It means there's no length to which he will not go.
LXXX
TO CALLISTRATUS
ALL men you praise because you would
Withhold their honour from the good;
So none are bad? If that's your view,
Then no one can be good to you.
LXXXI
ADDITIONS
His presents take the ampler shape
His larger means allow;
Of old he used to send a cape
He sends me capers now.
LXXXII
THE ANGLER
You may struggle as you please to escape Menogenes
In the bath or on the playground; at a match,
In the hottest game of ball, right and left he catches all,
But he registers to you his every catch.
Or though shod and ready dressed through the dust he runs
in quest
Of your football, and politely hands it back;
Of your towels he will say, ' Oh how snowy-white are they',
Though a mewling baby's bib is not as black;
As you comb your scanty hairs, then the parasite declares
The arrangement is the Achillean style;
Then he mixes your emetic and in fashion sympathetic
Will administer to you that potion vile,
He will mop your brow and tend you if the nauseous draught
should rend you'Tis compounded from the lees of smoky wine.
When he's lauded and admired everything, till you are tired,
You, from simple boredom, bid him come and dine!
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