et cui per mediam nolis occurrere noctem, frivola. Quod cum ita sit, tu Gaetulum Ganymedem 55 60-66. His attendant scorns to serve a client, and thinks it quite enough that you should sit at all while he has to stand. Nescit tot milibus emptus pauperibus miscere puer: sed forma, sed aetas digna supercilio. Quando ad te pervenit ille? quando rogatus adest calidae gelidaeque minister? Quippe indignatur veteri parere clienti, quodque aliquid poscas et quod se stante recumbas. Maxima quaeque domus servis est plena superbis. 60 65 67-75. Then you have hard and mouldy bread: he the best wheaten flour; and if you take this instead of your own, the slave insults you. Ecce, alius quanto porrexit murmure panem vix fractum, solidae iam mucida frusta farinae, quae genuinum agitent, non admittentia morsum : sed tener et niveus mollique siligine fictus servatur domino. Dextram cohibere memento; salva sit artoptae reverentia: finge tamen te improbulum, superest illic, qui ponere cogat. "Vis tu consuetis, audax conviva, canistris impleri, panisque tui novisse colorem ?" 70 fictus P. factus w. 70 75 75 76-79. And this was what you left your home and braved the weather for so long! "Scilicet hoc fuerat, propter quod saepe, relicta coniuge, per montem adversum gelidasque cucurri Esquilias, fremeret saeva cum grandine vernus Iupiter et multo stillaret paenula nimbo?" 80-91.-He has a lobster served in asparagus, you a crab pinched up in half an egg: he uses Venafran oil, while you must be content with African oil, which smells of the lamp. Aspice, quam longo distinguat pectore lancem, cum venit excelsi manibus sublata ministri. 80 Sed tibi dimidio constrictus cammarus ovo ponitur exigua, feralis cena, patella. 85 Ipse Venafrano piscem perfundit: at hic, qui pallidus adfertur misero tibi caulis, olebit lanternam illud enim vestris datur alveolis, quod canna Micipsarum prora subvexit acuta ; propter quod Romae cum Boccare nemo lavatur, quod tutos etiam facit a serpentibus atris. 90 92-98.Our seas are well-nigh emptied of their fish, and the provinces are compelled to furnish materials for Roman gluttony. Mullus erit domini, quem misit Corsica, vel quem 95 Instruit ergo focum provincia: sumitur illinc quod captator emat Laenas, Aurelia vendat. 99-106. — Virro is served with a lamprey from the Sicilian Straits; before you is placed a pike caught almost in the drains of the Subura. Virroni muraena datur, quae maxima venit gurgite de Siculo: nam, dum se continet Auster, et solitus mediae cryptam penetrare Suburae. 100 105 107-113.-"We do not expect to find in you, Virro, a second Seneca or Piso, but we do claim that you should dine as a citizen among citizens." Ipsi pauca velim, facilem si praebeat aurem. "Nemo petit, modicis quae mittebantur amicis a Seneca, quae Piso bonus, quae Cotta solebat largiri namque et titulis et fascibus olim maior habebatur donandi gloria: solum poscimus, ut cenes civiliter. Hoc fac et esto, esto, ut nunc multi, dives tibi, pauper amicis." 110 114-119. His next course is a goose's liver, or a wild boar,then, if the weather suits, some mushrooms from Libya, which are of much more importance to our epicures than all its corn. Anseris ante ipsum magni iecur, anseribus par altilis et flavi dignus ferro Meleagri 112 faciet P. 115 spumat aper: post hunc tradentur tubera, si ver tunc erit et facient optata tonitrua cenas maiores. "Tibi habe frumentum," Alledius inquit, 66 o Libye disiunge boves, dum tubera mittas." 120 120-124.—Meanwhile, you may see the carver going through his evolutions and observing the rules of his art. Structorem interea, ne qua indignatio desit, saltantem spectes et chironomunta volanti cultello, donec peragat dictata magistri omnia. Nec minimo sane discrimine refert, quo gestu lepores et quo gallina secetur. 125-131.—If you would avoid summary ejection, hold your peace and take no liberties. Duceris planta, velut ictus ab Hercule Cacus, et ponere foris, si quid temptaveris umquam 125 hiscere, tamquam habeas tria nomina. Quando propinat Virro tibi sumitque tuis contacta labellis pocula quis vestrum temerarius usque adeo, quis perditus, ut dicat regi, "bibe ?" Plurima sunt, quae 130 non audent homines pertusa dicere laena. 132-140. Should you by some chance come into a fortune, Virro will become your friend and brother, and nothing will be too good for you. Though, even then, you will do well to remain childless. Quadringenta tibi si quis deus aut similis dis et melior fatis donaret, homuncio quantus ex nihilo fieres, quantus Virronis amicus. 116 fumat p. w. ; raduntur w. 135 vos estis fratres. Dominus tamen et domini rex si vis tu fieri, nullus tibi parvulus aula luserit Aeneas, nec filia dulcior illo: iucundum et carum sterilis facit uxor amicum. 140 141-145.— As it is, you may have three at a birth, and your patron will be as condescending as before. Sed tua nunc Mycale pariat licet, et pueros tres in gremium patris fundat simul: ipse loquaci gaudebit nido; viridem thoraca iubebit adferri, minimasque nuces assemque rogatum, ad mensam quotiens parasitus venerit infans. 145 146-155. For dessert Virro and his friends will have apples worthy of the garden of the Hesperides; you will have fruit such as performing monkeys are glad to gnaw. Vilibus ancipites fungi ponentur amicis, 156-173.-Virro does all this of set purpose to annoy you. 150 155 Nor is he wrong he sees your sordid motive and he fittingly rewards it. Your next step will be to become a jester and submit to the punishment of a slave. Forsitan impensae Virronem parcere credas. |