Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK TWO
PREFACE
You might have borne three hundred pieces? True.
But, if you had, could any bear with you?
Why, little book, of brevity complain?
It saves a waste of paper: that's a gain;
The scribe needs but a single hour, and then
To weightier books may turn his busy pen:
A reader too more easily may brook
The flaws and blunders of a tiny book;
For at a banquet he could read you through,
Ere the mulled wine should cool, so short are you.
Yet though by brevity success you court,
Many will find you long, however short.
* II
TO THE EMPEROR DOMITIAN
CRETE gave the mighty name Metellus bore,
Scipio a mightier gained on Afric shore,
But yet more grand the name from conquered Rhine
That, when a child, Germania made thine.
Thy sire and brother won the Jewish crown:
The wreath the Chatti send is all thine own.
III
TO SEXTUS
You disappoint no creditor, you say?
True, no one ever thought that you would pay.
* IV
TO A MMIA NUS
You fondle your mother and she fondles you:
You're her ' brother ' and she is your ' sister.'
Why those mischievous names, I should much like to know??
Why are you not her son when you've kissed her?
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