Note 73 — Chapter III · OF IRRUMATION[60]
Reading edition
Martial, II., 72:
“They say Posthumus, that they did to you last night, at supper, what I would not have let them do;—who could approve such doings? They split your mouth! ...”
Then playing upon the words rumour and irrumate he adds:
“... As the author of this crime, the town’s rumour designates Caecilius.”
And again III., 73, ibid.:
“Rumour denies you are a Cinede.”
III., 80:
“Rumour says, you have an evil tongue.”
And III., 87:
“Rumour says, Chioné, that your vulva is intact, that nothing could be purer than it. Yet you bathe without covering the thing that should be covered; if you have any shame, then put your drawers upon your face.”
Percidere employed alone means to pedicate. Martial IV., 48; VII., 61; IX., 48; XI., 29; XII., 35; and Priapeia, XII., XIV. Some copies have praecidere for percidere, but this seems to be an untenable reading.