Sic te semper amet Venus, memento.[[1174]]
Go, happy rose, and with thy delicate garlands wreathe the locks of my Apollinaris; and remember, so may Venus ever love thee! to entwine them when gray: but may it be long ere that time comes.
The fourteenth book contains numerous ingenious couplets, sent, together with pencases, dice, tablets, toothpicks, and other little presents, at the Saturnalian festival.
In so vast a collection of pieces it is natural to expect that there would be great inequality, and that some of his wit would be commonplace and puerile. That such was the case, he himself confesses more than once;[[1175]] and in one place he states that this inequality constitutes one of the merits of his work.[[1176]]
He knew that his works were appreciated, not only at Rome, but also throughout the empire:—
Toto notus in orbe Martialis
Argutis epigrammaton libellis;[[1177]]
and this consciousness is some excuse for the vanity which occasionally shows itself,[[1178]] and which does not hesitate to account blemishes as beauties.
The following are favourable specimens of his poetry:—
Indignas premeret pestis cum tabida fauces,