Several writers have adduced many passages from Plautus to show that he did not think it a wrong thing for a young, or even for an old man, on a rare occasion, to have intrigues with these courtezans.[248] The fact cannot be denied. But it is also true that Plautus uniformly represents the residences of these women as the jaws of ruin. The ‘Truculentus’ is throughout a powerful representation of the utter selfishness of the class. The young man Diniarchus wastes his means on them, is ruined, and receives no pity from them. And the upright pedagogue, Lydus, in the ‘Bacchides,’ describes the house of the courtezans in language which might have suggested to Dante his inscription over the portals of hell. “Unbar and throw open quickly this gate of hell (Orcus), I beseech you, for I deem it no other, for no one comes here but he whom all hopes have abandoned of being virtuous.”[249] We may take a glance at the mode in which love-making went on in those days. Gaston Boissier thinks that Plautus is peculiarly happy in his portrayal of a lover’s feelings. He appeals to a passage in the ‘Curculio’ where Phædromus, a young man, thus addresses the door of his sweetheart’s house:[250]-- “Pessuli, heus pessuli, vos saluto lubens, Vos amo, vos volo, vos peto atque opsecro, Gerite amanti mihi morem amœnissumi; Fite caussa mea ludii barbari, Sussulite, opsecro, et mittite istinc foras, Quæ mihi misero amanti exbibit sanguinem, Hoc vide ut dormiunt pessuli pessumi Nec mea gratia conmovent se ocius.” Or the language of Diniarchus when Phronesium appears:[251]-- “Ver vide Ut tota floret, ut olet, ut nitide nitet.” He affirms that such passages justify the opinion of Ælius Stilo that if the muses wished to speak Latin, they would have used the language of Plautus. I shall quote two of the passages in which Plautus exhibits love-making. The one is from the ‘Asinaria’ (664), and gives the epithets which women used towards men. A slave, Leonidas, has contrived to get possession of a sum of money which a slave-girl requires, in order that she may be permitted to have interviews with his young master. The slave is conscious of his power over the girl, and wishes to tease her by keeping the money from her for some time. So she says to him:-- “Give me the money, my dear little eye, my rose, my soul, my delight: do not, I entreat you, separate us lovers. “_Leon._ Come now, just call me your little sparrow, your chick, your quail, your lambkin, your little kid, or your little calf. Just seize me by the dear little ears, and put dear little lips to dear little lips.”