"Let no dire images to-day be brought To wake the hell of matrimonial thought." Hodgson. [765] _Perit._ Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 121, "Detrimenta, fugas servorum, incendia ridet." [766] _Mappæ._ Holyday gives the following account of the origin of this custom. "Nero on a time, sitting alone at dinner, when the shows were eagerly expected, caused his towel with which he had wiped his hands to be presently cast out at the window, for a sign of his speedy coming. Whereupon it was in after times the usual sign at the beginning of these shows." For the mappa see Bekker's Gallus, p. 476.--_Præda_, because "ruined by the expense;" or _Prædo_, from his "unjust decisions;" or _Perda_, from the "number of horses damaged." [767] _Totam Romam._ See Gibbon, chap. xxxi., for the eagerness with which all ranks flocked to these games. [768] _Viridis panni._ Cf. ad vi., 590. Plin., Ep. ix., 6, "Si aut velocitate equorum, aut hominum arte traherentur, esset ratio nonnulla. Nunc favent _panno_: _pannum_ amant," _et seq._ Mart., x., Ep. xlviii., 23, "De Prasino conviva meus, venetoque loquatur." XIV., 131, "Si veneto Prasinove faves quid coccina sumis?" [769] _Pulvere_ is not without its force. Hannibal is said to have plowed up the land near Cannæ, that the wind which daily rose and blew in that direction might carry the dust into the eyes of the Romans. "Ventus (_Vulturnum_ incolæ regionis vocant) adversus Romanis coortus, _multo pulvere_ in ipsa ora volvendo, prospectum ademit." Liv., xxii., 46 and 43. Cf. Sat, ii., 155; x., 165. [770] _Cuticula._ Pers., iv., 18, "Assiduo curata cuticula sole." 33, "Et figas in cute solem." V., 179, "Aprici meminisse senes." Mart., x., Ep. xii., 7, "Totos avidâ cute combibe soles." I., Ep. 78, "Sole utitur Charinus." Plin., Ep. iii., 1, "Ubi hora balinei nuntiata est (cf. ad Sat. x., 216), est autem hieme nona, æstate octava, in sole, si caret vento, ambulat nudus." Cicero mentions "apricatio" as one of the solaces of old age. De Sen., c. xvi. "While we, my friend, whose skin grows old and dry, Court the warm sunbeam of an April sky." Badham. [771] _Rarior usus._ "Our very sports by repetition tire, But rare delight breeds ever new desire." Hodgson. SATIRE XII. This day, Corvinus, is a more joyful one to me than even my own birthday;[772] in which the festal altar of turf[773] awaits the animals promised to the gods.