https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/talis-oratio-qualis-vita <\/a><\/p>\n\n\tThe Greeks<\/em>, on the other hand, whom the Roman moral authors attribute much of the guilt, are much more permissive in the critic of the obscene behaviors.<\/p>\n\n\tThe obscenity <\/em>of erotic writings clashes with the "gravitas<\/em>" and "severitas" or "seriousness<\/em>" of the ancient "mores maiorum<\/em>" of the primitive Republic<\/em>, or moral behavior of the ancestors; it is a source of moral corruption especially for young people and can be interpreted as a sign of immoral life of the writer himself, which is the subject of this article.<\/p>\n\n\tThus it has passed from the antiquity to our days, as I said. This question of the influence of the obscenity, today we would say pornography, in the formation, education and behavior of the people continues being a matter of absolute topicality.<\/p>\n
\n\tAmong the examples, I will cite those of the three famous Latin <\/em>poets mentioned above, who were forced to claim their personal righteousness in the face of the poignant joy of their poems, which some of their readers do not seem to admit.<\/p>\n\n\tThe first of the three at the time is Catullus <\/em>(84 BC-Rome, 57 BC).<\/p>\n\n\tThe poem 16 of Catullus<\/em> is a complex poem, whose interpretation has been dedicated many pages because it reflects some of the characteristics of the sexuality of the Romans to the point of having been considered as an expression of masculine identity in all its strength : The "vir romanus<\/em>" can be homosexual <\/em>and receive the "fellatio<\/em>" only if he is active and domineering and not passive. It also seems that Catullus <\/em>has been greatly disturbed that he is considered "little man" because he asks thousands of kisses from his beloved (in the condition of the Roman "vir<\/em>" it is to take and not to ask an inferior being, as the woman is considered) .<\/p>\n\n\tBut I am not interested in analyzing these questions now, but rather the fact that Catullus contrasts literary inventiveness, the poetic person, to the real person, thus denying the Stoic <\/em>principle of “talis oratio qualis vita” (the discourse has to be in accordance with life<\/em>), which at least obliges to keep up appearances and how he claims a certain freedom for literature if it is to be attractive.<\/p>\n\n\tCatullus, XVI<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tI’ll fuck you and bugger you,
\n\tAurelius the pathic, and sodomite Furius,
\n\twho thought you knew me from my verses,
\n\tsince they’re erotic, not modest enough.
\n\tIt suits the poet himself to be dutifully chaste,
\n\this verses not necessarily so at all:
\n\twhich, in short then, have wit and good taste
\n\teven if they’re erotic, not modest enough,
\n\tand as for that can incite to lust,
\n\tI don’t speak to boys, but to hairy ones
\n\twho can’t move their stiff loins.
\n\tYou, who read all these thousand kisses,
\n\tyou think I’m less of a man?
\n\tI’ll fuck you, and I’ll bugger you.<\/strong><\/em>(Translated by A. S. Kline, )<\/p>\n\n\tPedicabo ego vos et irrumabo,
\n\tAureli pathice et cinaede Furi,
\n\tqui me ex versiculis meis putastis,
\n\tquod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum.
\n\tNam castum esse decet pium poetam
\n\tipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est;
\n\tqui tum denique habent salem ac leporem,
\n\tsi sunt molliculi ac parum pudici,
\n\tet quod pruriat incitare possunt,
\n\tnon dico pueris, sed his pilosis
\n\tqui duros nequeunt movere lumbos.
\n\tVos, quod milia multa basiorum
\n\tlegistis, male me marem putatis?
\n\tPedicabo ego vos et irrumabo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAnother later example in time is that of Ovid <\/em>(43 BC-17 AD). Accused of "immoral<\/em>" in his time and for all posterity with the decisive collaboration of the emperor Augustus <\/em>who used his famous Art of Love<\/em> as an excuse to condemn him to exile in the confines of the Empire and with the aid of Christianity <\/em>that called him "absolutely pagan and immoral poet,<\/em>" he was forced to justify and vindicate again and again the honor of his personal life explaining the difference between literary creation and real life.<\/p>\n\n\tIn the elegy addressed to a friend orator, he says in Tristia I, 9,55 et seq:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tIt had been best that light had failed my pursuit. And just as you are aided, my eloquent friend, by serious arts, so arts unlike them have injured me. Yet my life is well known to you ; you know that
\n\twith those arts their author's character had no connexion ; you know that this poem I was written long ago, an amusement of my youth, and that those jests, though not deserving praise, were still mere jests. <\/strong><\/em>(Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)<\/p>\n\n\tat nostrum tenebris utinam latuisset in imis !
\n\texpediit studio lumen abesse meo.
\n\tutque tibi prosunt artes, facunde, severae,
\n\tdissimiles illis sic nocuere mihi.
\n\tvita tamen tibi nota mea est. scis artibus illis
\n\tauctoris mores abstinuisse sui :
\n\tscis vetus hoc iuveni lusum mihi carmen, et istos
\n\tut non laudandos, sic tamen esse iocos.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tOvid <\/em>clarifies things in Tristia II, 345 et seq. :<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThis wantonness has caused thee to hate me on account of the arts which thou didst think disturbed unions that all were forbidden to attack. But no brides have learned deceptions through my teaching ; nobody can teach that of which he knows too little. I have composed songs of pleasure and love but in such fashion that no scandal has ever touched my name. No husband exists even amid the common people who doubts his fatherhood through sin of mine. I assure you, my character differs from my verse (my life is moral, my muse is gay), and most of my work, unreal and fictitious, has allowed itself more licence than its author has had. A book is not an evidence of one's soul, but an honourable impulse that presents very many things suited to charm the ear. Else would Accius be cruel, Terence a reveller, or those would be quarrelsome who sing of fierce war.<\/em><\/strong> (Translated by Arthur Leslie Wheeler)<\/p>\n\n\tHaec tibi me inuisum lasciuia fecit, ob Artes,
\n\t Quis ratus es uetitos sollicitare toros.
\n\tSed neque me nuptae didicerunt furta magistro,
\n\t Quodque parum nouit, nemo docere potest.
\n\tSic ego delicias et mollia carmina feci,
\n\t Strinxerit ut nomen fabula nulla meum.
\n\tNec quisquam est adeo media de plebe maritus,
\n\t Vt dubius uitio sit pater ille meo.
\n\tCrede mihi, distant mores a carmine nostro
\n\t (Vita uerecunda est, Musa iocosa mea)
\n\tMagnaque pars mendax operum est et ficta meorum:
\n\t Plus sibi permisit compositore suo.
\n\tNec liber indicium est animi, sed honesta uoluntas:
\n\t Plurima mulcendis auribus apta feres.
\n\tAccius esset atrox, conuiua Terentius esset,
\n\t Essent pugnaces qui fera bella canunt.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tHe insists on the same idea in Tristia II, 303 ff.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tFar from the " Art," written for courtesans
\n\talone, its first page warns the hands of upright
\n\twomen. Any woman who breaks away to a place
\n\tforbidden by a priest, forthwith removes from him
\n\tthe sin and becomes herself guilty. Nevertheless
\n\tit is no crime to read tender verse ; the chaste may
\n\tread much that they should not do. Often matrons
\n\tof serious brow behold women nude*, ready for
\n\tevery kind of lust. The eyes of Vestals behold the
\n\tbodies of courtesans nor has that been the cause
\n\tof punishment to their owner.
\n\tYet why is my muse so wanton ? Why does
\n\tmy book advise anybody to love ? There is naught
\n\tfor me but confession of my error and my obvious
\n\tfault : I repent of my talent and my tastes<\/em>
\n\t(Translated by Arthur Leslie Wheeler)<\/p>\n\n\t* Note: Because they attended the festivals of Floralia <\/em>between April 28 and May 3 in which prostitutes were displayed naked, according to the work also of Ovid Fasti V, 159-378.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tet procul a scripta solis meretricibus Arte
\n\tsummovet ingenuas pagina prima manus.
\n\tquaecumque erupit, qua non sinit ire sacerdos,
\n\tprotinus huic dempti criminis ipsa rea est.
\n\tnec tamen est facinus versus evolvere mollis ;
\n\tmulta licet castae non facienda legant.
\n\tsaepe supercilii nudas matrona severi
\n\tet veneris stantis ad genus omne videt.
\n\tcorpora Vestales oculi meretricia cernunt,
\n\tnec domino poenae res ea causa fuit.
\n\tat cur in nostra nimia est lascivia Musa,
\n\tcurve meus cuiquam suadet amare liber ?
\n\tnil nisi peccatum manifestaque culpa fatenda est :
\n\tpaenitet ingenii iudiciique mei.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAnd in Tristia 3, 2, 5-9<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tIt avails me not that without real guilt I wrote playful verse, that my Muse was merrier tan my life, but many are the perils by land and sea that I have undergone, and now the Pontus shrivelled with constant frost possesses me.<\/strong><\/em> (Translated by Arthur Leslie Wheeler)<\/p>\n\n\tNec mihi, quod lusi uero sine crimine, prodest,
\n\t Quodque magis uita Musa iocata mea est:
\n\tPlurima sed pelago terraque pericula passum
\n\t Vstus ab assiduo frigore Pontus habet.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tOf Martial <\/em>(40 AD-104), the Hispanic <\/em>poet of Bilbilis (Calatayud)<\/em> who went like many others to Rome<\/em>, to the City<\/em>, to the center of the world, we have about 1,550 epigrams; about 100 of them can be considered obscene applying contemporary moral criteria: they are which refer or mention the male and female cunnilingus<\/em>, fellatio <\/em>and sodomy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tMartial also must repeat the same clarification and almost with the same words as the previous poets, about the difference between literature and life:<\/p>\n
\n\tMartial I,4:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tIf perchance, Caesar, you shall come upon my books, lay aside the frown that rules the world. Your triumphs too have been wont to endure jests, and no shame is it to a commander to be matter for wit. With the air that views Thymele and the mime Latinus, therewith I pray you to read my verses. A censor can permit harmless trifling : wanton is my page ; my life is good.<\/strong><\/em> (Translated by Walter C.A.Ker)<\/p>\n\n\tContigeris nostros, Caesar, si forte libellos,
\n\tTerrarum dominum pone supercilium.
\n\tConsuevere iocos vestri quoque ferre triumphi,
\n\tMateriam dictis nec pudet esse ducem.
\n\tQua Thymelen spectas derisoremque Latinum,
\n\tIlla fronte precor carmina nostra legas.
\n\tInnocuos censura potest permittere lusus:<\/em>
\n\tLasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAlso in the presentation of Book VIII<\/em> and the first epigram<\/em> of that book he deals the question of the language of his little poems:<\/p>\n\n\tTo the emperor Domitianus, Caesar, Augustus, conqueror of Germany and Dacia, Valerius Martialis sends Greeting.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tOF a truth all my little books, Sire, to which you have given fame, that is, life, are your suppliants, and I think will, for this reason, be read. This one, however, which is marked the eighth of my works, enjoys more frequently the opportunity of showing loyalty. Accordingly I had less occasion for the labour of invention, for which the subject-matter formed a substitute ; that, however, I have here and there attempted to diversify by some intermixture of pleasantry, so that every verse should not heap upon your divine modesty its meed of praise which would more easily weary you than satiate me. And although epigrams have been written in such a style, even by men the most austere and of the highest position, as apparently to have aimed at the verbal licence of mimes, yet I have not allowed these to speak with their usual playfulness. As part of my book and that the greater and better is attached to the Majesty of your sacred name, it should remember that it is unfitting to approach the temple save cleansed by religious purification. That readers may know I shall regard this obligation, I have determined to make my profession on the very threshold of this little book by a very brief epigram.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tI<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThou, my book, who art purposed to enter my Master's laurel-wreathed abode, learn to speak more reverently in modest speech. Undraped Venus, stand back : this little book is not thine ; do thou come to me, thou, Pallas, patron of Caesar.<\/strong><\/em> (Translated by Walter C.A.Ker)<\/p>\n\n\tImperatori Domitiano Caesari Augusto Germanico Dacico Valerius Martialis S.
\n\tOmnes quidem libelli mei, domine, quibus tu fa-
\n\tmam, id est vitam, dedisti, tibi supplicant; et, puto,
\n\tpropter hoc legentur. Hic tamen, qui operis nostri octa-
\n\tvus inscribitur, occasione pietatis frequentius fruitur.
\n\tMinus itaque ingenio laborandum fuit, in cuius locum
\n\tmateria successerat: quam quidem subinde aliqua ioco-
\n\trum mixtura variare temptavimus, ne caelesti verecun-
\n\tdiae tuae laudes suas, quae facilius te fatigare possint,
\n\tquam nos satiare, omnis versus ingereret. Quamvis
\n\tautem epigrammata a severissimis quoque et summae
\n\tfortunae viris ita scripta sint, ut mimicam verborum
\n\tlicentiam adfectasse videantur, ego tamen illis non per-
\n\tmisi tam lascive loqui quam solent. Cum pars libri et
\n\tmaior et melior ad maiestatem sacri nominis tui alli-
\n\tgata sit, meminerit non nisi religiosa purificatione
\n\tlustratos accedere ad templa debere. Quod ut custo-
\n\tditurum me lecturi sciant, in ipso libelli huius limine
\n\tprofiteri brevissimo placuit epigrammate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tI<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tLaurigeros domini, liber, intrature penates
\n\tDisce verecundo sanctius ore loqui.
\n\tNuda recede Venus; non est tuus iste libellus:
\n\tTu mihi, tu Pallas Caesariana, veni.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAnd in Martial I,35<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThat I write verses little squeamish, and not such
\n\tas a schoolmaster would dictate in school, is your
\n\tcomplaint, Cornelius ; but these poems cannot please,
\n\tany more than husbands can please their wives,
\n\twithout amorousness. What if you bade me indite
\n\ta marriage song not in the words of a marriage
\n\tsong ? Who brings garments into Flora's festival,
\n\tand permits prostitutes the modesty of the stole ?
\n\tThis is the rule assigned to jocular poems, to be
\n\tunable to please unless they are prurient. 2 Where-
\n\tfore lay aside your squeamishness, and spare my
\n\tpleasantries and my jokes, I beg you, and do not
\n\tseek to castrate my poems. Than a Priapus as
\n\tCybele's priest nothing is more disgusting.<\/strong><\/em>(Translated by Walter C.A.Ker)<\/p>\n\n\tVersus scribere me parum severos
\n\tNec quos praelegat in schola magister,
\n\tCorneli, quereris: sed hi libelli,
\n\tTamquam coniugibus suis mariti,
\n\t5Non possunt sine mentula placere.
\n\tQuid si me iubeas talassionem
\n\tVerbis dicere non talassionis?
\n\tQuis Floralia vestit et stolatum
\n\tPermittit meretricibus pudorem?
\n\tLex haec carminibus data est iocosis,
\n\tNe possint, nisi pruriant, iuvare.
\n\tQuare deposita severitate
\n\tParcas lusibus et iocis rogamus,
\n\tNec castrare velis meos libellos.
\n\tGallo turpius est nihil Priapo.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThe same in 9, 28<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThe darling pride of the stage, the glory of the
\n\tgames, that Latinus am I, the favourite of your
\n\tapplause, who could have made a spectator of
\n\tCato, who could have dissolved in laughter the
\n\tstern Curii and Fabricii. But nought from Rome's
\n\ttheatre did my life assume ; and only through my
\n\tart am I accounted of the stage ; nor could I have
\n\tbeen dear to my master had I not character : that
\n\tGod looks into the heart within. Call me, if ye
\n\twill, the parasite of laurelled Phoebus, so Rome
\n\tbut know that I am the servant of her Jove. <\/em><\/strong>(Translated by Walter C.A.Ker)<\/p>\n\n\tDulce decus scaenae, ludorum fama, Latinus
\n\tIlle ego sum, plausus deliciaeque tuae,
\n\tQui spectatorem potui fecisse Catonem,
\n\tSolvere qui Curios Fabriciosque graves.
\n\tSed nihil a nostro sumpsit mea vita theatro,
\n\tEt sola tantum scaenicus arte feror:
\n\tNec poteram gratus domino sine moribus esse;
\n\tInterius mentes inspicit ille deus.
\n\tVos me laurigeri parasitum dicite Phoebi,
\n\tRoma sui famulum dum sciat esse Iovis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAn in book 11, 15<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tI have writings that Cato's wife and that grim Sabine dames might read ; I wish this little book to laugh from end to end, and be naughtier than all my little books. Let it be drenched in wine and not ashamed to be stained with rich Cosmian unguents ; let it play with the boys, love the girls, and in no roundabout phrase speak of that where- from we are born, the parent of all, which hallowed Numa called by its own name. Yet remember that these verses are of the Saturnalia, pollinaris : this little book does not express 3 my own morals. <\/strong><\/em>(Translated by Walter C.A.Ker)<\/p>\n\n\tSunt chartae mihi, quas Catonis uxor
\n\tEt quas horribiles legant Sabinae:
\n\tHic totus volo rideat libellus
\n\tEt sit nequior omnibus libellis.
\n\t5Qui vino madeat nec erubescat
\n\tPingui sordidus esse Cosmiano,
\n\tLudat cum pueris, amet puellas,
\n\tNec per circuitus loquatur illam,
\n\tEx qua nascimur, omnium parentem,
\n\t10Quam sanctus Numa mentulam vocabat.
\n\tVersus hos tamen esse tu memento
\n\tSaturnalicios, Apollinaris:
\n\tMores non habet hic meos libellus.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tPliny the Younger<\/em> refers to the use of crude words in the poemes to give them their grace. I reproduce in full Epistula 4, 14<\/em>:<\/p>\n\tTO PATERNUS.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tPerhaps you are asking and looking out for a speech of mine, as you usually do, but I am sending you some wares of another sort, exotic trifles, the fruit of my playtime. You will receive with this letter some hendecasyllabics of mine with which I pass my leisure hours
\n\tpleasantly when driving, or in the bath, or at dinner. They contain my jests, my sportive fancies, my loves, sorrows, displeasures and wrath,described sometimes in a humble, sometimes in a lofty strain. My object has been to please different tastes by this variety of treatment, and I hope that certain pieces will be liked by every one. Some of them will possibly strike you as being rather wanton, but a man of your scholarship will bear in mind that the very greatest and gravest authors who have handled such subjects have not only dealt with lascivious themes, but have treated them in the plainest language. I have not done that, not because I have greater austerity than they–by no means, but because I am not quite so daring. Otherwise, I am aware that Catullus has laid down the best and truest regulations governing this style of poetry in his lines:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t "For it becomes a pious bard to be chaste himself,though there is no need for his verses to be so. Nay, if they are to have wit and charm, they must be voluptuous and not too modest."<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tYou may guess from this what store I set on your critical judgment when I say that I prefer you should weigh the whole in the balance rather than pick out a few for your special praise. Yet pieces, perfect in themselves, cease to appear so the moment they are all on a dead level of perfection. Besides, a reader of judgment and acumen ought not to compare different pieces with one another, but to weigh each on its own merits and not to think one inferior to another, if it is perfect of its kind. But why say more? What more foolish than to excuse or commend mere trifles with a long preface? Still there is one thing of which I think I should advise you, and it is that I am thinking of calling these trifles "Hendecasyllables," a title which simply refers to the single metre employed. So, whether you prefer to call them epigrams, or idylls, or eclogues, or little poems, as many do, or any other name,remember that I only offer you "Hendecasyllables." I appeal to your candour to speak to me frankly about my tiny volume as you would to a third person, and this is no hard request. For if this trifling work of mind were my chef d'oeuvre, or my one solitary composition, it might perhaps seem harsh to say, "Seek out some other employment for your talent," but it is perfectly gentle and kindly criticism to say, "You have another sphere in which you show to greater advantage." Farewell.<\/strong><\/em> (Translated by John B. Firth<\/p>\n\n\tC. PLINIUS [DECIMO] PATERNO SUO S.
\n\tTu fortasse orationem, ut soles, et flagitas et exspectas; at ego quasi ex aliqua peregrina delicataque merce lusus meos tibi prodo. Accipies cum hac epistula hendecasyllabos nostros, quibus nos in vehiculo in balineo inter cenam oblectamus otium temporis. His iocamur ludimus amamus dolemus querimur irascimur, describimus aliquid modo pressius modo elatius, atque ipsa varietate temptamus efficere, ut alia aliis quaedam fortasse omnibus placeant. Ex quibus tamen si non nulla tibi petulantiora paulo videbuntur, erit eruditionis tuae cogitare summos illos et gravissimos viros qui talia scripserunt non modo lascivia rerum, sed ne verbis quidem nudis abstinuisse; quae nos refugimus, non quia severiores – unde enim? -, sed quia timidiores sumus. Scimus alioqui huius opusculi illam esse verissimam legem, quam Catullus expressit:
\n\tNam castum esse decet pium poetam
\n\tipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est,
\n\tqui tunc denique habent salem et leporem
\n\tsi sunt molliculi et parum pudici.
\n\tEgo quanti faciam iudicium tuum, vel ex hoc potes aestimare, quod malui omnia a te pensitari quam electa laudari. Et sane quae sunt commodissima desinunt videri, cum paria esse coeperunt. Praeterea sapiens subtilisque lector debet non diversis conferre diversa, sed singula expendere, nec deterius alio putare quod est in suo genere perfectum. Sed quid ego plura? Nam longa praefatione vel excusare vel commendare ineptias ineptissimum est. Unum illud praedicendum videtur, cogitare me has meas nugas ita inscribere 'hendecasyllabi', qui titulus sola metri lege constringitur. Proinde, sive epigrammata sive idyllia sive eclogas sive, ut multi, poematia seu quod aliud vocare malueris, licebit voces; ego tantum hendecasyllabos praesto. A simplicitate tua peto, quod de libello meo dicturus es alii, mihi dicas; neque est difficile quod postulo. Nam si hoc opusculum nostrum aut potissimum esset aut solum, fortasse posset durum videri dicere: 'Quaere quod agas'; molle et humanum est: 'Habes quod agas.' Vale.<\/em><\/p>\n\tApuleius <\/em>also gives us valuable information in his Apology<\/em>, or discourse on magic, in self-defense.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tApology, 11<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\tWhich of us is most to blame? I who am fool enough to speak seriously of such things in a law-court? or you who are slanderous enough to include such charges in your indictment? For sportive effusions in verse are valueless as evidence of a poet's morals. Have you not read Catullus, who replies thus to those who wish him ill:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t _A virtuous poet must be chaste. Agreed.
\n\t But for his verses there is no such need._<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThe divine Hadrian, when he honoured the tomb of his friend the poet Voconius with an inscription in verse from his own pen, wrote thus:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t _Thy verse was wanton, but thy soul was chaste_,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\twords which he would never have written had he regarded verse of somewhat too lively a wit as proving their author to be a man of immoral life. I remember that I have read not a few poems by the divine Hadrian* himself which were of the same type. Come now, Aemilianus, I dare you to say that that was ill done which was done by an emperor and censor, the divine Hadrian, and once done was recorded for subsequent generations. But, apart from that, do you imagine that Maximus will censure anything that has Plato for its model, Plato whose verses, which I have just read, are all the purer for being frank, all the more modest for being outspoken? For in these matters and the like, dissimulation and concealment is the mark of the sinner, open acknowledgement and publication a sign that the writer is but exercising his wit. For nature has bestowed on innocence a voice wherewith to speak, but to guilt she has given silence to veil its sin. I say nothing of those lofty and divine Platonic doctrines, that are familiar to but few of the elect and wholly unknown to all the uninitiate, such for instance as that which teaches us that Venus is not one goddess, but two**, each being strong in her own type of love and several types of lovers.<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translated by H.E.Butler)<\/p>\n\n\t* Aelius Spartianus, in Scriptores historiae Augustae, XIV,<\/em> affirms that Emperor Hadrian<\/em> composed several amatory poems: Et de suis dilectis multa versibus composuit, amatoria carmina scripsit.<\/em>
\n\t** Plato <\/em>in his dialogue The Symposium, 180C<\/em> opposes the Aphrodite Pandemos<\/em> to the Aphrodite Urania.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tSed sumne ego ineptus, qui haec etiam in iudicio? an uos potius calumniosi, qui etiam haec in accusatione, quasi ullum specimen morum sit uersibus ludere? Catullum ita respondentem maliuolis non legistis:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tnam castum esse decet pium poetam
\n\tipsum, uersiculos nihil necesse est?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tDiuus Adrianus cum Voconi amici sui poetae tumulum uorsibus muneraretur, ita scripsit: ‘lasciuus uersu, mente pudicus eras,’ quod nunquam ita dixisset, si forent lepidiora carmina argumentum impudicitiae habenda. ipsius etiam diui Adriani multa id genus legere me memini. aude sis, Aemiliane, dicere male id fieri, quod imperator et censor diuus Adrianus fecit et factum memoriae reliquit. ceterum Maximum quicquam putas culpaturum, quod sciat Platonis exemplo a me factum? cuius uersus quos nunc percensui tanto sanctiores sunt, quanto apertiores, tanto pudicius compositi, quanto simplicius professi; namque haec et id genus omnia dissimulare et occultare peccantis, profiteri et promulgare ludentis est; quippe natura uox innocentiae, silentium maleficio distributa.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tmitto enim dicere alta illa et diuina Platonica, rarissimo cuique piorum ignara, ceterum omnibus profanis incognita: geminam esse Venerem deam, proprio quamque amore et diuersis amatoribus pollentis;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tearum alteram uulgariam, quae sit percita populari amore, non modo humanis animis, uerum etiam pecuinis et ferinis ad libidinem imperitare ui immodica trucique perculsorum animalium serua corpora complexu uincientem: alteram uero caelitem Venerem, praeditam quae sit optimati amore, solis hominibus et eorum paucis curare, nullis ad turpitudinem stimulis uel illecebris sectatores suos percellentem; quippe amorem eius non amoenum et lasciuum, sed contra incomitum et serium pulchritudine honestatis uirtutes amatoribus suis conciliare, et si quando decora corpora commendet, a contumelia eorum procul absterrere; neque enim quicquam aliud in corporum forma diligendum quam quod ammoneant diuinos animos eius pulchritudinis, quam prius ueram et sinceram inter deos uidere. quapropter, ut semper, eleganter Afranius hoc scriptum relinquat: ‘amabit sapiens, cupient ceteri,’ tamen si uerum uelis, Aemiliane, uel si haec intellegere unquam potes, non tam amat sapiens quam recordatur.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tI will cite, in order to finish this long series of texts, the last part of the Cento Nuptialis<\/em>, of Ausonius<\/em>, poet of Bordeaux<\/em>, who lived between 310 and 395 and was tutor to the emperor Gratianus <\/em>in his childhood.<\/p>\n\n\tAusonius <\/em>wrote a very famous poem called Cento Nuptialis<\/em>, that puzzles us with eroticism, pornography perhaps for some, which we would not expect in this poet.<\/p>\n\n\tWe must clarify that a Cento <\/em>is a poem made up of verses drawn from another author that are integrated into a different set in which they acquire a different meaning. Ausonius <\/em>made a poem about marriage precisely with verses of Virgil<\/em>, the purest poet, whom people played word games with his name Virgil <\/em>relating it to "virgine<\/em>", calling it "virginal".<\/p>\n\n\tAt another time, I will dedicate an article to this poem, of which I now only want to cite the last part, Cento Nuptialis, 10, in which he justifies his text, recalling precisely what is said and done by many other authors, among others the mentioned in this same article.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t Be satisfied, friend Paul,
\n\t Paul,with this naughty page;
\n\t Laughter –naught else- I ask.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tBut when you have donenreading, stand by me to face those who, as Juvenal says-
\n\t“Put on the airs of Curius and live like Bacchanals,” – lest percance they picture my life in colours of my poem.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t “My page is naughty, but my life is clean,”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tas Martial says. Bur let them remember, learned as they are, that Pliny, a most honourable man, shows looseness in his scraps of verse, rigour in his private life; that Sulpicia’s Little work is wanton, her Outlook prim; that in morals Apuleius was a philosopher, in his epigrams a lover; that in the precepts of Cicero strictness is prominent, in his letters to Caerellia licence lurks; that Plato’s Symposium contains rhapsodies upon favourites. For what shall I say of the Fescennine verses of Annianus, what of the volumes of the Jeu d’Amour of Laevius, that most ancient poet? What of Evenus, whom Menander has called “the Wise”? What of Menander himself? What of all the comic poets, whose lives were strict for all the broad humour of their subjects? What also of Maro, called Parthenias (the Maidenly) because of his modesty, who in the eighth book of the Aeneid, when desdcribing the intercourse of Venus and Vulcan, has gravely introduced a mixed element of lofty obscenity? And again, in the third book of the Georgics, on cattle-breeding, has he not veiled an indecent meaning under an innocent metaphor? And if the primly-draped propriety of certain folk condemns aught in my playful piece, let them know that it is taken out of Virgbil. So anyone who disapproves of this farce of mine should not read it, or once he has read it, let him forget it, ori f he has not forgotten it, let him pardom it. For, as a matter of fact, it is the story of a wedding, and, like it or dislike it, the rites are exactly as I have described.<\/strong><\/em> (Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn White.)<\/p>\n\n\tNote<\/em>:
\n\tSulpicia <\/em>is one of the few Roman <\/em>female writers of whom we know his name, who quotes Martial <\/em>in