Oh, there is much, that never can be spoke
By a poor client in a threadbare cloak !

But should some god, or man of godlike soul,
The malice of your niggard fate control,
And bless you with a knight's estate; how dear
Would you be then! how wondrous great appear,
From nothing! Virro, so reserved of late,
Grows quite familiar: "Brother, send your plate;
Dear brother Trebius! you were wont to say
You liked these dainties; let me help you, pray."
You, riches, are his 'brother,' and to you
This warmth of friendship, this respect is due!
But would you now your patron's patron be?
Let no young Trebius wanton round your knee,
No Trebia, none: a barren wife procures
The kindest, truest friends! let such be yours.
Yet, should she breed, and, to augment your joys,
Pour in your lap, at once, three bouncing boys,
Virro will still, so you be wealthy, deign
To toy and prattle with the lisping train;
Will have his pockets too with farthings stored,

And, when the sweet young rogues approach his board,

Will order pretty corslets for the breast,

And treat with nuts and plums each coaxing guest.

You champ on spongy toadstools, hateful treat! Fearful of poison in each bit you eat:

He feeds secure on mushrooms, fine as those

Which Claudius ate, till Messalina chose,

With one more fine, his feasts and life to close! (148)
Apples, as fragrant, and as bright of hue,

As those which in Alcinoüs' gardens grew,
Mellow'd by constant sunshine; or as those
Which graced the Hesperides in burnish'd rows,—

148. The mushroom here alluded to was the agaricus cæsareus, or imperial agaric, which the Romans esteemed as one of the greatest luxuries of the table. It was common in Italy, and brought to the markets of Rome for sale.

TO URSIDIUS POSTHUMUS, ON WOMEN.

YES, I believe that CHASTITY was known,
And prized on earth, while Saturn fill'd the throne;
When rocks a bleak and scanty shelter gave,

When sheep and shepherds throng'd one common cave,
And when the mountain wife her couch bestrew'd
With skins of beasts, joint tenants of the wood,
And reeds, and leaves pluck'd from the neighbouring tree:
A woman, Cynthia, far unlike to thee,

Or thee, weak child of fondness and of fears,
Whose eyes a sparrow's death suffused with tears; (8)
But strong, and reaching to her burly brood

Her big-swoll'n breasts, replete with wholesome food,
And rougher than her husband, gorged with mast,
And frequent belching from the coarse repast.
For when the world was new, the race that broke,
Unfather'd, from the soil, or opening oak,
Lived most unlike the men of later times,
The puling brood of follies and of crimes.
Haply some trace of Chastity remain'd,
While Jove, but Jove as yet unbearded, reign'd;
Before the Greek bound, by another's head, (16)
His doubtful faith; or men, of theft in dread,
Had learn'd their herbs and fruitage to immure,
But all was unenclosed, and all secure!
At length Astrea, from these confines driven,
Regain'd, by slow degrees, her native heaven;

VER. 8. He means Lesbia, the mistress of Catullus, whose exquisite hendecasyllables on the death of her favourite sparrow are still extant. Cynthia, mentioned in a preceding line, was the mistress of Propertius.

16. From the multiplied forms of oaths among the Greeks, Juvenal concludes, rationally enough, that this people invented them.