"I wish to have Lygia. I wish that these arms of mine, which now
embrace only air, might embrace Lygia and press her to my bosom. I wish
to breathe with her breath. Were she a slave, I would give Aulus for
her one hundred maidens with feet whitened with lime as a sign that they
were exhibited on sale for the first time. I wish to have her in my
house till my head is as white as the top of Soracte in winter."

"She is not a slave, but she belongs to the 'family' of Plautius; and
since she is a deserted maiden, she may be considered an 'alumna.'
Plautius might yield her to thee if he wished."

"Then it seems that thou knowest not Pomponia Græcina. Both have become
as much attached to her as if she were their own daughter."

"Pomponia I know,--a real cypress. If she were not the wife of Aulus,
she might be engaged as a mourner. Since the death of Julius she has
not thrown aside dark robes; and in general she looks as if, while still
alive, she were walking on the asphodel meadow. She is, moreover, a
'one-man woman'; hence, among our ladies of four and five divorces, she
is straighrway a phoenix. But! hast thou heard that in Upper Egypt the
phoenix has just been hatched out, as 'tis said?--an event which happens
not oftener than once in five centuries."

"Petronius! Petronius! Let us talk of the phoenix some other time."

"What shall I tell thee, my Marcus? I know Aulus Plautius, who, though
he blames my mode of life, has for me a certain weakness, and even
respects me, perhaps, more than others, for he knows that I have never
been an informer like Domitius Afer, Tigellinus, and a whole rabble of
Ahenobarbus's intimates [Nero's name was originally L. Domitius