Nec magis huic inter niveos viridesque lapillos
(Sit licet hoc, Cerinthe, tuum,) tenerum est femur aut crus
Rectius; atque etiam melius persaepe togatae est.
(Nor amidst all her showy gems and green jewels is her thigh more soft (though it is your belief, Cerinthus, that it is) or her leg straighter; nay! very often that of the toga’d harlot is the better limb).
It is well-known what trouble Bentley gave himself to explain this locus implicatissimus (most intricate passage), as he calls it, because he supposed the common reading to be corrupt and accordingly altered the text, all to bring out a comparison of Cerinthus’ thigh—a comparison that never was in Horace’s mind at all. Several years ago in our Work, “De Sexuali Organismorum Fabrica,” (On the Sexual Fabric of Organisms), Spec. I., Halle 1832. large 8vo., p. 61., we disentangled the matter and showed exactly how it stood, proving that the “Sit licet hoc, Cerinthe, tuum” (Though this be your (opinion), Cerinthus) must be taken as a parenthesis, consequently that the usual reading is the right one. But as the book would seem to have come into few hands, and least of all into those of Philologists, we may be allowed to take this opportunity of once more developing our view. The comparison is between the matron and the “togata”, and it is maintained that the matron, i. e. the noble Roman lady, possesses for all her jewelry neither a softer thigh nor a straighter leg than the “togata”, the girl of common stamp; that the latter in fact can often make a better show of both, even though her leg is as crooked as the matron’s is,—a peculiarity that every female leg has, because in a woman the knee projects more forwards. Aristotle, Hist. Anim., IV. 11. 6., even in his time notes this fact: τὸ θῆλυ τῶν ἀῤῥένων καὶ γονυκροτώτερον. (the female is more knock-kneed also than the male). Comp. same author’s Physiognom., 3. 5. 6. Adamant., Physiognom., II. 107. ed. Sylb. Polemo, Physiognom., p. 179. Anatomical investigation moreover proves this most clearly. But as Cerinthus seems to be ignorant of it, in spite of its being a well known Act, he lets himself be deluded by the outward magnificence of attire and distinguished birth, and believes the matron to be the better built, and it is for this mistake the poet taunts him. Horace in this passage is merely giving a commentary on v. 63 above. Now compare what Plautus, Mostell., I. 3. 13, makes Scopha say to Philemation, Non vestem amatores mulieris amant, sed vestis fartum (’Tis not the dress of a woman that lovers love, but the lining of the dress); also Martial, III. Epigr. 33.; and the folly of Cerinthus is made quite obvious. The phrase—Sit licet hoc tuum (Though this be yours) in the sense, “though you look at it this way, take the dazzle of jewels as the criterion of a woman’s beauty”, surely needs no further confirmation.
[188] Seneca, Controv., I. 2., Da mihi lenonis rationes; captura conveniet. (Give me the brothel-keeper’s accounts; the fee will suit).
[189] Seneca, Controv., I. 2., Deducta es in lupanar, accepisti locum, pretium constitutum est. (You were taken to a brothel, you took your place, your price was fixed). Ovid, Amores, I. 10., Stat meretrix cuivis certo mercabilis aere. (There stands the harlot that any man can buy for a fixed sum). The fee was called captura (fee) (compare Schulting, on Seneca, loco citato, and Casaubon on Suetonius, Caligula 40.), quaestus meretricius (harlot’s hire) (Cicero, Philipp. II. 18.) or simply quaestus (hire); merces (cost) and pretium stupri (price of fornication); aurum lustrale (brothel, literally den, money). The women used to demand its payment. Juvenal, Sat. VI. 125. Excepit blanda intrantes atque aera poposcit. (Blandly she welcomed her visitors as they entered and asked for the fee). Hence the expression “basia meretricum poscinummia” (harlots kisses that ask for money) in Apuleius, Met., X. p. 248. For the rest prices were very various among the brothel-harlots as they were with the others. Comp. Martial, X. 75., IX. 33., III. 54. The lowest fee was one As or 2 obols (three pence); hence girls of the sort were called by the Romans also diobolares meretrices (two-obol harlots) (Festus) or diobolaria scorta (two-obol whores) (Plautus, Poen., I. 2. 58.). Comp. p. 90 above.
[190] Plautus, Trinum., IV. 2. 47., Quae adversum legem accepisti a plurimis pecuniam. (You who contrary to the regulation accepted money from a great many men).
[191] Hence the women were also called Nonariae (Ninth-hour women). Persius, Sat. I. 133. The Scholiast observes on the passage: Nonaria dicta meretrix, quia apud veteres a nona hora prostabant, ne mane omissa exercitatione illo irent adolescentes. (A harlot was called “Nonaria”, because in former times they used to act as prostitutes from the ninth hour only, for fear the young men should resort thither in the morning to the neglect of their athletic exercises).
[192] Nonius Marcellus, V. § 8., Inter meretricem et prostibulum hoc interest: quod meretrix honestioris loci est et quaestus: nam meretrices a merendo dictae sunt, quod copiam sui tantummodo noctu facerent: prostibula, quod ante stabulum stent quaestus diurni et nocturni causa. (This is the difference between a meretrix (harlot) and a prostibulum (common strumpet): a meretrix is of a more honorable station and calling; for meretrices were so named a merendo (from earning wages), because they plied their calling only by night; prostibula, because they stand before the stabulum (stall, “chamber”) for gain both by day and night).—Plautus, Cistell. fragm., Adstat ea in via sola: prostibula sane est. (She stands there in the way alone: surely she is a prostibula—common whore).