The tribes of female flute-players, Ambubaiarum , "Women who played on the flute." It is derived from a Syrian word; for the people of
 that country usually excelled in this instrument. Pharmacopolae is a general name for all who deal in spices, essence, and perfumes. quacks, vagrants, mimics, blackguards; Mendici, mimae, balatrones . The priests of Isis and Cybele were beggars by profession, and under the vail of
 religion were often guilty of the most criminal excesses. Mimae 
 were players of the most debauched and dissolute kind; and balatrones , in general, signifies all scoundrels, buffoons, and parasites, who
 had their name, according to the old commentator, from Servilius Balatro. Balatrones hoc genus omne , for omne hoc balatronum
 genus , is a remarkable sort of construction. all this set is sorrowful and dejected on account of the death of the singer
 Tigellius; for he was liberal [toward them]. On the other hand, this man, dreading to be
 called a spendthrift, will not give a poor friend wherewithal to keep off cold and pinching hunger. If you ask him why he wickedly consumes
 the noble estate of his grandfather and father in tasteless gluttony, buying with borrowed
 money all sorts of dainties; he answers, because he is
 unwilling to be reckoned sordid, or of a mean spirit: he is praised by some, condemned by
 others. Fufidius, wealthy in lands, wealthy in money put out at interest, is afraid of having
 the character of a rake and spendthrift. This fellow deducts 5 per cent. interest Quinas hic capiti mercedes exsecat . Caput is the principal; merces the interest; and exsecare is to deduct the
 interest before the money is lent. For instance, Fufidius lent a hundred pounds, and at the
 end of the month the borrower was to pay him a hundred and five, principal and interest. But
 he gives only ninety-five pounds, deducting his interest when he lends the money, which thus
 increases in twenty months equal to his principal. The laws allowed a usury called usura centesima , which doubled the capital sum in a hundred months, or
 eight years and four months. from the principal [at the time of lending]; and, the more desperate in his circumstances any one is, the more severely he pinches him:
 he hunts out the names Nomina sectatur . Nomen signifies a debt, because the borrower gave the
 lender a note of acknowledgment for the money, signed with his name. The laws forbade
 lending money to minors, or persons under the age of twenty-five years. of young fellows that have just put on the toga virilis under rigid fathers. Who does
 not cry out, O sovereign Jupiter ! when he has heard
 [of such knavery]? But [you will say, perhaps,] this man expends upon himself in proportion to
 his gain. You can hardly believe how little a friend he
 is to himself: insomuch that the father, whom Terence's comedy introduces as living miserable
 after he had caused his son to run away from him, did not torment himself worse than he Now if
 any one should ask, "To what does this matter tend?" To this: while fools shun [one sort of]
 vices, they fall upon their opposite extremes. Malthinus
 walks with his garments trailing upon the ground; there is another droll fellow who [goes]
 with them tucked up even to his middle; Rufillus smells like perfume itself, Gorgonius like a
 he-goat. There is no mean. There are some who would not keep company with a lady, unless her
 modest garment perfectly conceal her feet. Another,
 again, will only have such as take their station in a filthy brothel. When a certain noted
 spark came out of a stew, the divine Cato [greeted] him with this sentence: "Proceed (says he)
 in your virtuous course. For, when once foul lust has inflamed the veins, it is right for
 young fellows to come hither, in comparison of their meddling with other men's wives."
 I should not be willing to be commended on such terms,
 says Cupiennius, an admirer of the silken vail. Ye, that do not wish well to the proceedings of adulterers, it is worth your while to hear
 how they are hampered on all sides; and that their
 pleasure, which happens to them but seldom, is interrupted with a great deal of pain, and
 often in the midst of very great dangers. One has thrown himself long from the top of a house;
 another has been whipped almost to death: a third, in his flight, has fallen into a merciless
 gang of thieves: another has paid a fine, [to avoid] corporal [punishment]: the lowest
 servants have treated another with the vilest indignities. Moreover, this misfortune happened to a certain person, he entirely lost his
 manhood. Every body said, it was with justice: Galba denied it. But how much safer is the traffic among [women] of the second rate! I mean the freed-women:
 after which Sallustius is not less mad, than he who commits adultery. But if he had a mind to be good and generous, as far as his estate and reason
 would direct him, and as far as a man might be liberal with moderation; he would give a
 sufficiency, not what would bring upon himself ruin and infamy. However, he hugs himself in
 this one [consideration]; this he delights in, this he extols: "I meddle with no matron."
 Just as Marsaeus, the lover of Origo Origo. There lived in Horace's time three famous courtesans at Rome ; Origo, Cytheris, and Arbuscala, all comedians. The
 poet was probably acquainted with them all. We are at a loss to know who Marsaeus was. he who gives his paternal estate and seat to an actress, says, "I never meddle with
 other men's wives." But you have with actresses, you have with common strumpets: whence your
 reputation derives a greater perdition, than your estate. What, is it abundantly sufficient to avoid the person, and not the [vice] which is
 universally noxious? To lose one's good name, to squander a father's effects, is in all cases
 an evil. What is the difference, [then, with regard to yourself,] whether you sin with the
 person of a matron, a maiden, or a prostitute? Togata . A prostitute. Women of this kind were obliged, when they went abroad, to wear a
 robe, called toga. The resemblance of it to the robe worn by men, made it a mark of
 infamy. 
 
 Villius, the son-in-law of Sylla (by this title alone
 he was misled), suffered [for his commerce] with Fausta an adequate and more than adequate
 punishment, by being drubbed and stabbed, while he was shut out, that Longarenus might enjoy
 her within. Suppose this [young man's] mind had addressed him in the words of his appetite,
 perceiving such evil consequences: "What would you have? Did I ever, when, my ardor was at the highest, demand a woman descended from a great consul,
 and covered with robes of quality?" What could he answer? Why, "the girl was sprung from an
 illustrious father." But how much better things, and how different from this, does nature,
 abounding in stores of her own, recommend; if you would
 only make a proper use of them, and not confound what is to be avoided with that which is
 desirable! Do you think it is of no consequence, whether your distresses arise from your own
 fault or from [a real deficiency] of things? Wherefore, that you may not repent [when it is
 too late], put a stop to your pursuit after matrons; whence more trouble is derived, than you
 can obtain of enjoyment from success. Nor has [this
 particular matron], amid her pearls and emeralds, a softer thigh, or limbs more delicate than
 yours, Cerinthus; nay, the prostitutes are frequently preferable. Add to this, that [the
 prostitute] bears about her merchandize without any varnish, and openly shows what she has to
 dispose of; nor, if she has aught more comely than ordinary, does she boast and make an ostentation of it, while she is industrious to
 conceal that which is offensive. This is the custom with men of fortune: when they buy horses,
 thy inspect them covered: that, if a beautiful forehand (as often) be supported by a tender
 hoof, it may not take in the buyer, eager for the bargain, because the back is handsome, the
 head little, and the neck stately. This they do
 judiciously. Do not you, [therefore, in the same manner] contemplate the perfections of each
 [fair one's] person with the eyes of Lynceus; but be blinder than Hypsaea, when you survey
 such parts as are deformed. [You may cry out,] "0 what a leg! O, what delicate arms!" But [you
 suppress] that she is low-hipped, short-waisted, with a long nose, and a splay foot. A man can
 see nothing but the face of a matron, who carefully
 conceals her other charms, unless it be a Catia. But if you will seek after forbidden charms
 (for the [circumstance of their being forbidden] makes you mad after them), surrounded as they
 are with a fortification, many obstacles will then be in your way: such as guardians, the
 sedan, dressers, parasites, the long robe hanging down to the ankles, and covered with an
 upper garment; a multiplicity of circumstances, which
 will hinder you from having a fair view. The other throws no obstacle in your way; through the
 silken vest you may discern her, almost as well as if she was naked; that she has neither a
 bad leg, nor a disagreeable foot, you may survey her form perfectly with your eye. Or would
 you choose to have a trick put upon you, and your money extorted, before the goods are shown
 you? [But perhaps you will sing to me these verses out
 of Callimachus.] As the huntsman pursues the hare in the deep snow, but disdains to touch it
 when it is placed before him: thus sings the rake, and applies it to himself; my love is like
 to this, for it passes over an easy prey, and pursues what flies from it. Do you hope that grief, and uneasiness, and bitter anxieties, will be
 expelled from your breast by such verses as these? Would it not be more profitable to inquire
 what boundary nature has affixed to the appetites, what she can patiently do without, and what
 she would lament the deprivation of, and to separate what is solid from what is vain? What!
 when thirst parches your jaws, are you solicitous for golden cups to drink out of? What! when you are hungry, do you despise every thing but peacock
 and turbot? When your passions are inflamed, and a common gratification is at hand, would you
 rather be consumed with desire than possess it? I would not: for I love such pleasures as are
 of easiest attainment. But she whose language is, "By
 and by," "But for a small matter more," "If my husband should be out of the way," [is only]
 for petitmaitres: and for himself, Philodemus says, he chooses her, who neither stands for a
 great price, nor delays to come when she is ordered. Let her be fair, and straight, and so far
 decent as not to appear desirous of seeming fairer than nature has made her. When I am in the company of such an one, she is my Ilia and Aegeria; I give her any name. Nor am I apprehensive,
 while I am in her company, lest her husband should return from the country; the door should be
 broken open; the dog should bark; the house, shaken, should resound on all sides with a great
 noise; the woman, pale [with fear] should bound away
 from me; lest the maid, conscious [of guilt], should cry out, she is undone; lest she should
 be in apprehension for her limbs, the detected wife for her portion, I for myself; lest I must
 run away with my clothes all loose, and bare-footed, for fear my money, or my person, or,
 finally my character should be demolished. It is a dreadful thing to be caught: I could prove
 this, even if Fabius were the judge.