The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical AntiquityRosenbaum, Julius
History
The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity
Rosenbaum, Julius
Sexually transmitted diseases -- History
Quid dicam, Gelli, _quare rosea ista labella_
_Hiberna fiant candidiora nive,_
Mane domo cum exis, et cum te octava quiete
E molli longo suscitat hora die.
Nescio quid certe est. An vere fama susurrat,
_Grandia te medii tenta vorare viri_?
Sic certe clamant Virronis rupta miselli
Ilia, et _emulso labra notata sero_.
(Would you have me tell, Gellius, why those rosy lips grow whiter
than the winter’s snow, when you sally out from home in the morning,
and when the eighth hour of the long summer day wakes you from gentle
sleep? Nay! I know not what it is for sure. Does report say true, that
whispers _you mouth the swollen member of a man’s middle_? So at any
rate declare the deboshed vigour of poor feeble Virro, and _your own
lips marked by the humour you draw out_). _Martial_, Bk. VII. Epigr.
94.:
Bruma est, et riget horridus December,
Audes tu tamen osculo nivali
Omnis obvios hinc et hinc tenere,
Et totam, Line, basiare Romam.
Quid possis graviusque saeviusque
Percussus facere atque verberatus?
Hoc me frigore basiet nec uxor.
Blandis filia nec rudis labellis.
Sed tu dulcior, elegantiorque,
Cuius livida naribus caninis,
Dependet glacies, rigetque barba,
Qualem forficibus metit supinis
Tonsor Cinyphio Cilix marito.
Centum occurrere malo _cunnilingis_,
Et Gallum timeo minus recentem.
Quare si tibi sensus est pudorque,
Hibernas, Line, basiationes,
In mensem, rogo, differas Aprilem.
(’Tis winter time, and the shuddering chill of December is upon us.
None the less, Linus, you dare to greet with your frosty salute all men
you meet here and there, and to kiss all Rome. What more disagreeable
or more cruel could you do, if you had been struck or thrashed? With
an embrace so chilling may no wife kiss me, or unripe maid with
wheedling lips. But you,—you think yourself more attractive and more
pleasing, you from whose dog-like nose a blue icicle hangs, whose beard
is frozen stiff, such a beard as the Cilician shearer crops with his
upward-pointing clippers from the chin of a Cinyphian he-goat. I had
rather meet a hundred _cunnilingues_; I am less afraid of a Gaul new
come to town. Wherefore, if you possess any sense or any shame, I do
beseech you, Linus, defer your wintry salutes till April is come). Now
_Linus_ is designated by _Martial_, bk. VII. Epigr. 9, as a _fellator_,
and bk. XI. Epigr. 26., as a _cunnilingue_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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