C. lxiiii. v. 65. The strophium was a band which confined the breasts and restrained the exuberance of their growth. Martial apostrophizes it thus:
Fascia, crescentes dominae compesce papillas,
Ut sit quod capiat nostra tegatque manus.
"Confine the growth of my fair one's breasts, that they may be just large enough for my hand to enclose them."
v. 377. Circumdare filo. That is, may you to-morrow prove that you are no longer a virgin; for the ancients had an idea that the neck swelled after venery; perhaps from the supposed descent of the procreative fluid which they thought lodged in the brain. See Hippocrates and Aristotle upon this subject. The swelling of the bride's neck was therefore ascertained by measurement with a thread on the morning after the nuptials, and was held to be sufficient proof of their happy consummation. The ancients, says Pezay, had faith in another equally absurd test of virginity. They measured the circumference of the neck with a thread. Then the girl under trial took the two ends of the magic thread in her teeth, and if it was found to be so long that its bight could be passed over her head, it was clear she was not a maid. By this rule all the thin girls might pass for vestals, and all the plump ones for the reverse.
v. 403. Semiramis is said to have done thus by her son Ninus.
C. lxv. v. 19. The gift of an apple had a very tender meaning; according to Vossius it was quasi pignus concubitus, that is to say, it was the climax
To all those token flowers that tell
What words can never speak so well.