“The sons of Poeas was effeminate and prone to man-love; thus they say did Venus avenge Paris’ wounds.” In the same epigram Martial rallies Sertorius on being _cunnilingue_, giving as a possible reason his having killed Eryx, the son of Venus: “Why does Sicilian Sertorius lick women’s privates; because, Rufus, it would seem it was he killed Eryx.” _Cunnilingues_ appear to have been generally pale-faced; it is for medical men to say why. This may help you to discern the salt in Martial’s epigram on Charinus, I., 78: “Charinus is well and strong, and still he is pale; Charinus drinks with moderation, and still he is pale; Charinus digests well, and still he is pale; Charinus loves the open air and sun, and still he is pale; Charinus dyes his skin, and still he is pale; Charinus licks a woman’s privates, and still pale is he.” That is to say, amongst the causes that should prevent paleness the one last enumerated is the veritable cause of his paleness. _Fellators_ would also seem to have had pale faces, _Catullus_, LXXX: “How is it, Gellius, that those rosy lips of yours grow whiter than the winter’s snow, when at morn you leave your house, and the eighth hour calls you from your long-protracted soft repose? I know not what to think. Can it be true what rumor whispers, that you devour the middle parts of men? This at any rate is evidenced by wretched Virro’s sunken flanks and your own lips masked with the milky juice sucked from him.” The withered flanks are those of Virro, the _irrumator_, the lips those of Gellius; the passage is somewhat ambiguous, and only thus to be explained. One Virro, accustomed to take the passive part, has been already mentioned by us, in quoting Juvenal, IX., 35. I do not know whether it is the same: “Though Virro has caught sight of you all naked, and the foam has come to his lips.” _Pathics_, too, no less than _fellators_, appear to have pallid faces. Juvenal, II., 50: “Hispo submits to young men; he is pale with either kind of infamy.” He served as _patient_ to young men, and was moreover a _fellator_, as is shown by the difference which the poet institutes between him and women, who do not lick each other’s secret parts: “Taedia does not lick Cluvia, nor Flora Catulla.” Women, in fact, are rarely _cunnilingues_, although there _are_ examples. Martial only mentions one woman as belonging to that category; we shall come across her again in the next chapter. FOOTNOTES - CUNNILINGUES ----- Footnote 102: But Clodia was something more than a sister for Publius Clodius; this would appear from the spirited pleasantry of Cicero, _Pro Coelio_, ch. 13: “If there had not arisen differences between me and that lady’s husband, ... brother, I would say; I always make that mistake.” Footnote 103: