especially as our
praetor, the irrumating beast, cared not a single hair for his suite. "But
surely," she said, "you got some men to bear your litter, for they are said
to grow there?" I, to make myself appear to the girl as one of the
fortunate, "Nay," I say, "it did not go that badly with me, ill as the
province turned out, that I could not procure eight strapping knaves to
bear me." (But not a single one was mine either here or there who the
fractured foot of my old bedstead could hoist on his neck.) And she, like a
pathic girl, "I pray thee," says she, "lend me, my Catullus, those bearers
for a short time, for I wish to be borne to the shrine of Serapis." "Stay,"
quoth I to the girl, "when I said I had this, my tongue slipped; my friend,
Cinna Gaius, he provided himself with these. In truth, whether his or
mine--what do I trouble? I use them as though I had paid for them. But
thou, in ill manner with foolish teasing dost not allow me to be heedless."

XI.

Furi et Aureli, comites Catulli,
Sive in extremos penetrabit Indos,
Litus ut longe resonante Eoa
Tunditur unda,
Sive in Hyrcanos Arabesve molles, 5
Seu Sacas sagittiferosve Parthos,
Sive qua septemgeminus colorat
Aequora Nilus,
Sive trans altas gradietur Alpes,
Caesaris visens monimenta magni, 10
Gallicum Rhenum, horribile aequor ulti-
mosque Britannos,
Omnia haec, quaecumque feret voluntas
Caelitum, temptare simul parati,
Pauca nuntiate meae puellae 15
Non bona dicta.
Cum suis vivat valeatque moechis,
Quos simul conplexa tenet trecentos,
Nullum amans vere, sed identidem omnium
Ilia rumpens: 20
Nec meum respectet, ut ante, amorem,
Qui illius culpa cecidit velut prati
Vltimi flos, praeter eunte postquam
Tactus aratrost.

XI.

A PARTING INSULT TO LESBIA.

Furius and Aurelius, Catullus' friends,
Whether extremest Indian shore he brave,
Strands where far-resounding billow rends
The shattered wave,
Or 'mid Hyrcanians dwell he, Arabs soft and wild, 5
Sacae and Parthians of the arrow fain,
Or where the Seven-mouth'd Nilus mud-defiled
Tinges the Main,
Or climb he lofty Alpine Crest and note
Works monumental, Caesar's grandeur telling,