Note 107 — Second Part. (continued 2)

It is a surprising circumstance that the words basium, basiare, basiator (kiss, to kiss, kisser) appear only to have come into use by the Romans from the time of Catullus onwards, and are found almost exclusively in Martial, Juvenal and the still later Petronius, so coinciding with a period in which dissoluteness of morals had reached the highest pitch among the Romans. Some would derive the word basium from βάζω, loqui, (to speak); so perhaps it may have been used in a similar way to narrare (to tell) in Martial (III. 84.) in the sense of cunnilingere. Βάζω, βαίνω, βεινῶ and βινῶ (to speak, to go, to have sexual intercourse) seem all to have one and the same stem. The second of the two Epigrams of Martial quoted in the text reminds us almost involuntarily of the first Tarsica of Chrysostom. Apparently basium and basiare always imply a vicious kiss, to kiss viciously, in a general way. Hence Martial, XI. 62., Mediumque mavult basiare quam summum, (And she had rather kiss his middle than his head). Petronius, Sat., Ultime cinaedus supervenit,—extortis nos clunibus cecidit, modo basiis olidissimis inquinavit. (Finally a cinaedus appeared,—he made at us with writhing buttocks, and anon befouled us with most evil-smelling kisses).