SATYRA

bed? He who then was recalling laws bitter
to all, and even to Venus and Mars themselves,
when Julia was emptying her womb, fertile with so many abortives,
and pouring out clots resembling her uncle a reference to the incestuous relations of the ruling class.
Is it not, therefore, by right and merit that the ultimate vices
despise these feigned knock-kneed hypocrites, and bite back when chastised?
Laronia did not endure one of them,
shouting so often: "Where now is the Lex Julia? Are you sleeping?"
To whom she said, smiling: "Happy are the times that set you
against our morals. May Rome now possess some shame."
"A third Cato has fallen from heaven!" a sarcastic remark regarding a self-righteous critic But tell me, from where
do you buy these things? What are these nards perfumes that breathe
from your hairy neck? Do not be ashamed to show the owner of the shop.
But if the laws and rights are vexed, the Scatinian law a law against sexual misconduct between males ought to be cited
before all others. Look first
and scrutinize the men. They do more, but they are protected
by their numbers and their joined shields in phalanx.
There is great harmony among the effeminate. There will not be any
example in our sex so detestable.
Cluvia does not flatter Flora, nor does Catulla
flatter anyone. Hispo approaches young men and is pale from both diseases.
Do we women plead cases, or do we know
the civil laws? Or do we disturb your forums with any clamor?
Few of us wrestle, few eat the diet of boxers.
You pull the wool, and carry back the
fleeces in baskets; you twist the spindle, pregnant with fine thread,
better than Penelope, better than Arachne,
just as the concubine does, sitting by the block of wood.
It is known why Hister filled his tablets for his freedman
alone, why he gave many things to his mistress while he was still alive.