Varus drags me into his affairs <br />out of the Forum, where I’m seen idling: <br />to a little whore I immediately saw, <br />not very inelegant, not unattractive, <br />who, when we came there, met us <br />with varied chatter, including, how might <br />Bithynia stand now, what’s it like, and where <br />might the benefit have been to me in cash. <br />I told her what’s true, nothing at all, <br />while neither the praetors nor their aides, <br />return any the richer, especially since <br />our Praetor, Memmius, the bugger, <br />cared not a jot for his followers. <br />‘But surely,’ they said, you could have bought <br />slaves they say are made for the litter there.’ <br />I, so the girl might take me to be wealthy, <br />said ‘no, for me things weren’t so bad, <br />that coming across one bad province, <br />I couldn’t buy eight good men.’ <br />But I’d no one, neither here nor there, <br />who might even raise to his shoulder <br />the shattered foot of an old couch. <br />At this she, like the shameless thing she was, said <br />‘I beg you, my dear Catullus, for the loan of them, <br />just for a while: I’d like to be carried <br />to Serap’s temple.’ ‘Wait’ I said to the girl, <br />‘what I just said was mine, isn’t actually in <br />my possession: my friend Cinna, that’s Gaius, <br />purchased the thing for himself. <br />Whether they’re his or mine, what difference to me? <br />I use them just as well as if I’d bought them myself. <br />But you are quite tasteless, and annoying, <br />you with whom no inexactness is allowed.’<br /><br />Gaius Valerius Catullus<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/home-truths-for-varus-s-girl-to-varus/
