Carmina

Catullus

Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.

  1. As I from Forum idling came.
  2. Forthright some whorelet judged I it
  3. Nor lacking looks nor wanting wit,
  4. When hied we thither, mid us three
  5. Fell various talk, as how might be
  6. Bithynia now, and how it fared,
  7. And if some coin I made or spared.
  8. "There was no cause (I soothly said)
  9. "The Praetors or the Cohort made
  10. Thence to return with oilier head;
  11. The more when ruled by---
  12. Praetor, as pile the Cohort rating."
  13. Quoth they, "But certes as 'twas there
  14. The custom rose, some men to bear
  15. Litter thou boughtest ?" I to her
  16. To seem but richer, wealthier,
  17. Cry, "Nay, with me 'twas not so ill
  18. That, given the Province suffered, still
  19. Eight stiff-backed loons I could not buy.'
  20. (Withal none here nor there owned I