Note 276 — FIRST SECTION. (continued 2)
Reading edition
There still remains some doubt in our mind as to the meaning of another Epigram of Martial’s, Bk. IV. Epigr. 52.
Gestari iunctis nisi desinis, Hedyle, capris Qui modo ficus eras, iam caprificus eris,
(Unless you cease, Hedylus, to go with “she-goats” in copulation, you who were but now a fig-tree, will presently be a wild fig-tree (goat-fig)).
If capra (she-goat) here has the meaning of scortum (common strumpet),—and it cannot very well signify anything else,—the passage is an undoubted proof that such swellings were a consequence of coition with common prostitutes, and that the latter were ordinarily affected with them.—In Petronius, Sat. ch. 46., it is said of some one: Ingeniosus est et bono filo etiamsi in nave morbosus est. (He is of good abilities and good fibre, but he is diseased with swellings on the fundament.) Burmann notes on this: In nave—id est mariscas habet. Navis est podex ficosus. Hinc dictum illud Casellii apud Quintilianum, (De Instit. Orat. VI. 3. 87.) Consultori dicenti, navem dividere volo, respondentis, perdes. (In nave—that is, he has swellings. Navis (literally a ship) means a fundament afflicted with swellings. Hence the bon mot of Casellius, quoted in Quintilian. In reply to a client who said “I wish to cut (divide into shares) my ship” (navis,—means also diseased fundament), he retorted, “It’ll be fatal!”)