102.But Clodia was something more than a sister for Publius Clodius; this would appear from the spirited pleasantry of Cicero, Pro Coelio, ch. 13:

“If there had not arisen differences between me and that lady’s husband, ... brother, I would say; I always make that mistake.”

103.Gonzalvo of Cordova, according to Aloysia Sigaea (Dialogue VIII.), made similar jokes: “He also, I am sure, in spite of his age, was a great tongue-player (linguist). A pretty girl of some twenty years had to amuse him. When he wanted to put his tongue to her juste milieu, he declared he wanted to go to Liguria.” He could play with words upon the same matter, always implying the idea of a humid vulva, saying that he was going to Phoenicia, or to the Red Sea, or to the Salt Lake; you now understand what is meant by the Salt Lake or Salt Sea, into which Alpheus threw himself according to the epigram in the Anthology. Nearly related to this are the salgamas of Ausonius, of which we shall speak shortly, and the “onions swimming in putrid brine,” which the BÆticus of Martial, III., 77 devours. As it was said of the fellators that they “Phoenicized”, because they followed the example set by the Phoenicians, so probably the same word was applied to the cunnilingues as loving to swim in a certain sea of Phoenician red; and, in fact, this was the case. Hesychius: “Scylax, an Erotic posture, like that assumed by Phoenicizers.” The Phoenicians assumed a certain posture, called Scylax, or the dog. There could be nothing better for describing the depraved action of a cunnilingue than this canine epithet with regard to the posture taken for irrumating or fellation; dogs are cunnilingues as anybody knows, and have been so ever since their abominable adventure which their ambassadors met with (allusion to Phaedrus’ fable).

104.Ovid, Metamorphoses, III., 308-12:

“... Mortal woman could not survive the celestial fire; she was consumed by her spouse’s favours. The infant but half formed is torn from the mother’s womb, and, if we may believe the tale, is sown still immature in the father’s thigh, and there completes the period of gestation.”

105.This Castor is perhaps the same who, according to the statement of Ausonius (Epigram in Professoribus Burdegalensibus, XXII., 7) had published a book with the title Cunctis de Regibus ambiguis.

106.Pliny, Nat. Hist., XII., ch. 12: “The Costus-root has a burning taste and an exquisite smell; its berries are otherwise useless.”

107.The Cysthus, Greek **** is the private parts of a woman. Aristophanes, Lysistrata, v. 1160: “And a more beautiful cysthus I never saw.”

108.Pliny Nat. Hist., XII., ch. 12: “The leaves of the nard must be considered more minutely, for they are a principal ingredient in perfumery.”

109.Quintilian, Instit. orat., I., ch. 1: “He can learn the interpretation of the occult languages, what the Greeks call ****** Alcuin, Grammatica, p. 2086, in Putschius’ Collection: Glossa is the interpretation of a verb or a noun; e.g. catus is the same thing as doctus.” On this occasion it may be permitted to the Director of the Court-Library at Coburg to state, that this library contains a remarkable copy of the collection of Putschius, by the hand of John Scheffer, who died at Upsala in 1679, beginning thus: “The notes to be found in this volume, on the margin of books IV. and V., of Priscian, have been made after a very ancient and most beautifully written manuscript, in which a number of traces of primitive Latin orthography are found, as for instance: dirivare for derivare, peneultimus and antepeneultimus for penultimus and antepenultimus, Oratius for Horatius, etc.”

110.As we are on the subject of the shape of the female organ, it will not be amiss to enumerate in this place all the various names by which it was known in Latin; the greater part of them we have gathered from the treasure-house of Aloysia Sigaea: “The field, the ring, the furrow, the cavern, the clitoris, the conch-shell, the cunnus, the little boat, the cysthus, the pit, the garden, the between-thighs, the barque, the swine, the wicket, the slit, the precipice, the hole, the trench, the sheath, the virginal, the vulva. And what should hinder us from giving at the time the names of the virile member: The armature of the belly, the catapult, the tail, the stem, the parcel, the column, the pole, the lance with balls, the amulet, the pike, the groin, the hanger, the mentula, the mutinus, the muto, the nerve, the virile sign, the stake, the peculia, the penis, the stopper, the phallus, the javelin, the tree, the obelisk, the shaft, the spectre, the seminal member, the awl, the bull, the dart, the balista, the beam, the thyrsus, the vessel, the little vessel, the vein, the private, the verpa and verpus, the verge, the ploughshare.” Here you have more than enough.

111.Altrinsecus, in Ausonius, is equivalent to utrinsecus, meaning, from either side. Lactantius employs that word in De Opificio Dei, ch. 8: “It is incredible how the fact of their being double (the ears) adds to their beauty, as much on account of the symmetry thus produced, as because the sounds which arise on all sides, can more easily be received on both sides (altrinsecus).”

112.Persius, VI., 13: “And you may mark the crime with a black Theta.” See also Martial, VII., 36.

113.I say it was adopted by them particularly; that there were also young men, who by a singular depravity licked the vulvas they might have entered legitimately, Martial tells us, XI., 86:

“An evil star, Zoilus, has struck your tongue of a sudden, even while licking a vulva. Of a surety, Zoilus, you must now use your member.”

114.When the middle-finger is pointing, the other fingers are turned inside, representing thus a mentula with its accessories; for which reason it was thus pointedly shown to Cinedes (the Greeks expressed this in a single word: ******), either by way of invitation or to tease them. Martial, I., 93: “Cestus has often complained to me, Mamurianus, that you tease him with your finger.” It was also pointed at people held in contempt. The same author, VI., 70:

“He points with the finger and that the impudent finger” (that is Martianus, who is never ill, does to the doctors). Thence this unlucky finger had the epithet “infamous.” Persius says without any obscene afterthought, II., 33: “The grandmother cleanses the babe with the infamous (middle) finger.”

115.Nevertheless, Eunuchs who have been deprived of their testicles, but not of their mentula, are by no means wanting in lubricity: they can do the business without any danger for a woman, inasmuch as they cannot generate children. The Roman matrons were well aware of the fact: Martial, VI., 67:

“You ask me, Pannicus, why Gallia keeps so many Eunuchs; she loves to be enjoyed, but wants no children.”

Juvenal, VI., 365-67:

“There are women who like feeble eunuchs, and kisses that are ever harmless, and the absence, nay! the impossibility, of a beard, for they need use no abortive.”

St. Jerome, in the Life of Hilarion: “A steward with curled locks, castrated for the sake of longer pleasure and perfect safety....” To make more sure of their enjoyment, experienced dames did not allow the testicles of the Eunuchs to be cut off until the member had attained full proportions, apprehensive that it might remain puny and inactive if the operation were made earlier. They wanted their Eunuchs well furnished, capable of challenging Priapus himself. By such they liked to be worked, being sure of not becoming enceinte. Juvenal, VI., 367-77:

“With those however is love’s pleasure most exquisite, whose testicles, when they are lusty and fully matured, are delivered to the surgeons, the pubis being already black with hair. The organs are spared till they are full and ready; then at last, when they have reached two pounds in weight, Heliodorus cuts them, to the prejudice of the barber. The observed of all observers, stared at by all, see him enter the baths and challenge the god of vineyard and garden, castrated thus by his lady’s order. He may sleep now with his mistress; still beware, Josthumus, how you trust him with your Bromius, now fully developed and ready for the razor.”