Thus Romulus became so popular; This was the way to thrive in peace and war; To pay his army, and fresh whores to bring: Who wou’d not fight for such a gracious king! Now Ovid dwells on wine as an amatory stimulant, a virtual flaming potion: But thou, when flowing cups in triumph ride, And the lov’d nymph is seated by thy side; Invoke the God, and all the mighty pow’rs, That wine may not defraud thy genial hours. Then in ambiguous words thy suit prefer; Which she may know were all addrest to her. Practice all the variations conceivable in winning your designated conquest, Ovid advises recurrently. Your wit and suavity will prevail: far more, in fact, than artificial aids, such as philtres. Philtres, Ovid asserts from the richness of his erotic experience, are futile in the contests of love: Pallid philtres given to girls were of no avail. Philtres harm the mind and produce an impact of madness. He enumerates many items that were popularly reputed to possess aphrodisiac properties. But you should shun them, he reiterates, for their effect is minimal. Hippomanes, the excrescence on a new-born colt, is ineffectual: similarly with the traditional magic herbs purchased furtively from some wizened old hag. Reject, equally, formulas for exorcism and similar enchantments. The best love philtre, in short, is the lover’s own passion. Even the ancient enchantress Circe, whom Homer describes so vividly, could not, by the aid of her occult devices, prevent the unfaithfulness of Ulysses: nor could the tumultuous Medea, practiced in the lore of the sorceress, combat the waywardness of Jason. It is true, the poet acknowledges, that in the popular mind many objects, grasses, roots are associated with the virtues of the love potion: but erroneously so, he adds. He lists the items as follows: Some teach that herbs will efficacious prove, But in my judgment such things poison love. Pepper with biting nettle-seed they bruise, With yellow pellitory wine infuse. Venus with such as this no love compels, Who on the shady hill of Eryx dwells. Eat the white shallots sent from Megara Or garden herbs that aphrodisiac are, Or eggs, or honey on Hymettus flowing, Or nuts upon the sharp-leaved pine-trees growing. * * * * * Morality, especially sexual morality, descended to its most degenerative nadir in the period of the Roman Empire. The poets and satirists, the historians and the moralists all uniformly fulminate against the profligacies of Roman matrons, particularly in the upper social levels and in the court circles, and blast and condemn the utter licentiousness, lewdness, and abandonment of all restraints. Seneca the philosopher asserts: