Page:The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter (1922), vol. 2.djvu/165

 is warned by Priapus to refrain from stealing fruit under penalty of being assaulted from the rear, and the God adds that, should this punishment hold no terrors, there is still the possibility that his mentule may be used as a club by the irate land owner. Again, in Catullus, 100, the Roman pederasty shows itself: “Celius loves Aufilenus and Quintus loves Aufilena—madly.” As we approach the Christian era the picture darkens. Gibbon (vol. i, p. 313) remarks, in a note, that “of the first fifteen emperors, Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct,” but Claudius was a moron. We come now to the bathing establishments. Their history in every country is the same, in one respect: the spreading and fostering of prostitution and pæderastia. Cicero (Pro Cælio) accuses Clodia of having deliberately chosen the site of her gardens with the purpose of having a look at the young fellows who came to the Tiber to swim. Catullus (xxxiii) speaks of the cinædi who haunt the bathing establishments: Suetonius (Tib. 43 and 44) records the desperate expedients to which Tiberius had recourse to regain his exhausted virility: the scene in Petronius (chap. 92). Martial (lib. i, 24):

“You invite no man but your bathing companion, Cotta, only the baths supply you with a guest. I Rh