erit in lecto fortissimus,’’ which Housman has rendered “he is a valiant mattress-knight.”
CHAPTER 17. “In our neighborhood there are so many Gods that it is easier to meet one of them than it is to find a man.”
Quartilla is here smarting under the sting of some former lover’s impotence. Her remark but gives color to the charge that, owing to the universal depravity of Rome and the smaller cities, men were so worn out by repeated vicious indulgences that it was no easy matter for a woman to obtain satisfaction at their hands.
“Galla, thou hast already led to the nuptial couch six or seven catamites; thou wert seduced by their delicate coiffure and combed beards. Thou hast tried the loins and the members, resembling soaked leather, which could not be made to stand by all the efforts of the wearied hand; the pathic husband and effeminate bed thou desertest, but still thou fallest into similar couches. Seek out some one rough and unpolished as the Curii and Fabii, and savage in his uncouth rudeness; you will find one, but even this puritanical crew has its catamites. Galla, it is difficult to marry a real man.” Martial, vii, 57.
“No faith is to be placed in appearances. What
