Pagina:Dialogues of Roman Life.djvu/99

88

KISSING LAND

que quōcunque te moves, suaviorum plēna sunt omnia.

I. Quod ad basia attinet, ego quidem Romae manebo contentus: hīc enim iam vel aestāte vel hieme satis basiorum.

Te vīcīnia tota, te pilōsus
Hircōso premit osculo colōnus.
 . . . . . .
Brūma est, et riget horridus December,
Audes tu tamen osculo nivāli
Omnes obvius hinc et hinc tenēre
Et totam, Line, basiare, Romam.
 . . . . . .
Hībernas, Line, basiationes
In mensem rogo differas Aprīlem.^[1]

Ph. Sed si tu, Iuli, gustasses semel quam sint molles basiationes Siculae, quam fragrantes, profecto cuperes non decennium modo, ut Solōn^[2] fēcit, sed usque ad mortem in Sicilia peregrīnāri.

I. Ego mālo Romae podagra affici, Philippe. Sed per me haud stābit quōminus tu in Sicilia in aeternum habites. Valē.

1. Aprilem. These lines are quoted from Martial, a Roman poet who wrote under the empire and died in a.d. 102.
2. Solon. Solon, the great lawgiver of Athens, made the Athenians promise not to alter his laws, and then went into voluntary exile for ten years.