If you boast high that you are not obedient to your wife's commands, you talk idly, for you are not sprung of oak or rock, as the saying is; and, as is the hard case with most or all of us, you too are in woman's rule. But if you say, "I am not struck with a slipper, nor my wife being unchaste have I to bear it and shut my eyes," I reply that your bondage is lighter, in that you have sold yourself to a reasonable and not to too hard a mistress.
XIV AN UNGROUNDED SCANDAL LUCILIUS
Some say, Nicylla, that you dye your hair; which is as black as can be bought in the market.
XV THE POPULAR SINGER NICARCHUS
The night-raven's song is deadly; but when Demophilus sings, the very night-raven dies.
XVI THE FAULTLESS DANCER PALLADAS
Snub-nosed Memphis danced Daphnis and Niobe; Daphne like a stock,
Niobe like a stone.
XVII THE FORTUNATE PAINTER LUCILIUS
Eutychus the portrait-painter got twenty sons, and never got one likeness, even among his children.