Iam cunae leonis erant, ut ab ubere raptus
Sordida vagitu posceret aera puer,
Immatura dabant infandas corpora poenas.
Non tulit Ausonius talia monstra pater:
Idem qui teneris nuper succurrit ephebis,
Ne faceret steriles saeva libido viros.
Dilexere prius pueri, iuvenesque senesque:
At nunc infantes te quoque, Caesar, amant.
(As though it were a small wrong done our sex to make males prostitutes[264] to be debauched by the crowd, cradles now became a part of the brothel-keeper’s stock in trade, that the baby-boy torn from the breast might solicit a sordid wage by his wailing, and immature bodies paid horrible penalties. Horrors such as these the great Father of Italy (Domitian) would not suffer: that same good Emperor who of late came to the rescue of tender youths, that raging lust might not make men unfruitful. Heretofore boys loved him,—and young men and old; now the very infants too love thee, Caesar).
Yet this was of little avail; the vice descended from generation to generation, and passed on to the Christian nations, just as the Roman punishments did in their legal codes.