my arm outside the city, I passed a number of days in his house? It
happened that Plautius came up at the moment when the accident happened,
and, seeing that I was suffering greatly, he took me to his house; there
a slave of his, the physician Merion, restored me to health. I wished
to speak with thee touching this very matter."

"Why? Is it because thou hast fallen in love with Pomponia perchance?
In that case I pity thee; she is not young, and she is virtuous! I
cannot imagine a worse combination. Brr!"

"Not with Pomponia--eheu!" answered Vinicius.

"With whom, then?"

"If I knew myself with whom? But I do not know to a certainty her name
even,--Lygia or Callina? They call her Lygia in the house, for she
comes of the Lygian nation; but she has her own barbarian name, Callina.
It is a wonderful house,--that of those Plautiuses. There are many
people in it; but it is quiet there as in the groves of Subiacum. For a
number of days I did not know that a divinity dwelt in the house. Once
about daybreak I saw her bathing in the garden fountain; and I swear to
thee by that foam from which Aphrodite rose, that the rays of the dawn
passed right through her body. I thought that when the sun rose she
would vanish before me in the light, as the twilight of morning does.
Since then, I have seen her twice; and since then, too, I know not what
rest is, I know not what other desires are, I have no wish to know what
the city can give me. I want neither women, nor gold, nor Corinthian
bronze, nor amber, nor pearls, nor wine, nor feasts; I want only Lygia.
I am yearning for her, in sincerity I tell thee, Petronius, as that
Dream who is imaged on the Mosaic of thy tepidarium yearned for