Note 181 — FIRST SECTION.

Martial, bk. XI. 46., Intrasti quoties inscripta limina cellae, (As oft as you have crossed the thresholds of a “chamber” with inscription over). Seneca, Controv., bk. I. 2., Deducta es in lupanar, accepisti locum, pretium constitutum est, titulus inscriptus est, (You were taken away to a brothel, you received your stand, your price was fixed, your name written up).—Meretrix vocata es, in communi loco stetisti, superpositus est cellae tuae titulus, venientes recepisti, (You were called a harlot, you took your stand in a public brothel, your name-ticket was put up above your chamber, you received such as came).—Nomen tuum pedendit in fronte, pretia stupri accepisti, et manus, quae diis datura erat sacra, capturas tulit, (Your name hung on your door, you took the price of fornication, and your hand, that was meant to offer sacred gifts to the gods, held the fees). This last passage interpreters have wished to understand as if the name-ticket were fastened on the woman’s forehead; but, not to mention that in this case tibi would have to be read for tuum, it is a perfectly well known fact that frons (front, forehead) was used in Latin for the face of a door (Ovid, Fasti, I. 135., Omnis habet geminas, hinc atque hinc, ianua frontes, (Every door has two faces, inside and out). Seneca says pependit (it hung there), and afterwards is promoted onto the list of the Leno (Brothel-keeper)!