TO CÆSAR OF MAMURRA, CALLED MENTULA.

Who e'er could witness this (who could endure

Except the lewdling, dicer, greedy-gut)

That should Mamurra get what hairy Gaul

And all that farthest Britons held whilòme?

(Thou bardache Romulus!) this wilt see and bear? 5

Then art a lewdling, dicer, greedy-gut! 5b

He now superb with pride superfluous

Shall go perambulate the bedrooms all

Like white-robed dovelet or Adonis-love.

Romulus thou bardache! this wilt see and bear?

Then art a lewdling, dicer, greedy-gut! 10

Is't for such like name, sole Emperor thou!

Thou soughtest extreme Occidental Isle?

That this your ---- Mentula

Millions and Milliards might at will absorb?

What is't but Liberality misplaced? 15

What trifles wasted he, small heirlooms spent?

First his paternal goods were clean dispersed;

Second went Pontus' spoils and for the third,--

Ebro-land,--weets it well gold-rolling Tage.

Fear him the Gallias? Him the Britons' fear? 20

Why cherish this ill-wight? what 'vails he do?

Save fat paternal heritage devour?

Lost ye for such a name, O puissant pair

(Father and Son-in-law), our all-in-all?

Who can witness this, who can brook it, save a whore-monger, a guzzler, and

a gamester, that Mamurra should possess what long-haired Gaul and remotest

Britain erstwhile had. Thou catamite Romulus, this thou'lt see and bear?

Then thou'rt a whore-monger, a guzzler, and a gamester. And shall he now,

superb and o'er replete, saunter o'er each one's bed, as though he were a

snow-plumed dove or an Adonis? Thou catamite Romulus, this thou'lt see and

hear? Then thou'rt a whore-monger, a guzzler, and a gamester. For such a

name, O general unique, hast thou been to the furthest island of the west,

that this thy futtered-out Mentula should squander hundreds of hundreds?

What is't but ill-placed munificence? What trifles has he squandered, or

what petty store washed away? First his patrimony was mangled; secondly the

Pontic spoils; then thirdly the Iberian, which the golden Tagus-stream

knoweth. Do not the Gauls fear this man, do not the Britons quake? Why dost

thou foster this scoundrel? What use is he save to devour well-fattened

inheritances? Wast for such a name, O most puissant father-in-law and

son-in-law, that ye have spoiled the entire world.

The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus · 第 105 / 372 题