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 Terracotta of a courting couple, 150-100 BCE |
This poem is a dramatic tour de force set in the Circus Maximus, where the frenzy of the horserace is equalled by the excitement of the chase in a place where the sexes sit side by side. The reader is forced to become an eavesdropper to a pick-up as a man-about-town, seated beside a woman who has come to the races unaccompanied for this purpose, talks almost non-stop for 83 lines. He speaks some of the oldest and most inventive lines a woman ever heard with dexterity, speed, and breathtaking maneuvers. In the process of charming and dazzling his new mistress, the speaker describes various features of the races, such as the surprising audience demand for a re-run. At the end of his monologue, his new girl awards him the palm of victory. This is the "professor of love" at his most Ovidian, before his exile by Augustus to Tomis on the Black Sea. The poem is written in elegiac couplet, which consists of two lines of poetry in dactylic meter: the first hexameter, the second pentameter (see illustration of the meter ). |
| 1 | "Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum; |  |
| ut loquerer tecum veni, tecumque sederem, | ||
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ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor. |
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| 5 | tu cursus spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque | |
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quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos. |
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| O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum! | |
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| hoc mihi contingat, sacro de carcere missis | |
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| 10 | ||
| et modo lora dabo, modo verbere terga notabo, | ||
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| si mihi currenti fueris conspecta, morabor, | ||
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deque meis manibus lora remissa fluent. |
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| 15 | at quam paene Pelops Pisaea concidit hasta, |  |
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dum spectat vultus, Hippodamia, tuos! |
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| nempe favore suae vicit tamen ille puellae. | ||
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vincamus dominae quisque favore suae! |
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| Quid frustra refugis? cogit nos linea iungi. | ||
| 20 |
haec in lege loci commoda circus habet --- |
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| tu tamen a dextra, quicumque es, parce puellae; | ||
| tu quoque, qui spectas post nos, tua contrahe crura, | ||
| 25 | Sed nimium demissa iacent tibi pallia terra. |  |
| invida vestis eras, quae tam bona crura tegebas; | ||
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quoque magis spectes — invida vestis eras! |
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| talia Milanion Atalantes crura fugacis |  |
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| 30 |
optavit manibus sustinuisse suis. |
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| talia pinguntur succinctae crura Dianae |  |
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cum sequitur fortes, fortior ipsa, feras. |
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| his ego non visis arsi; quid fiet ab ipsis? | ||
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in flammam flammas, in mare fundis aquas. |
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| 35 | suspicor ex istis et cetera posse placere, | |
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quae bene sub tenui condita veste latent. |
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| Vis tamen interea faciles arcessere ventos? | ||
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quos faciet nostra mota tabella manu. |
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| an magis hic meus est animi, non aeris aestus, | ||
| 40 | ||
| dum loquor, alba levi sparsa est tibi pulvere vestis. | ||
| Sed iam pompa venit — linguis animisque favete! | |
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tempus adest plausus — aurea pompa venit. |
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| 45 | prima loco fertur passis Victoria pinnis — |  |
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huc ades et meus hic fac, dea, vincat amor! |
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| plaudite Neptuno, nimium qui creditis undis! |  |
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| plaude tuo Marti, miles! nos odimus arma; |  |
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| 50 |
pax iuvat et media pace repertus amor. |
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| auguribus Phoebus, Phoebe venantibus adsit! |   |
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| ruricolae, Cereri teneroque adsurgite Baccho! | 
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| 55 | nos tibi, blanda Venus, puerisque potentibus arcu |  |
| daque novae mentem dominae! patiatur amari! | ||
| quod dea promisit, promittas ipsa, rogamus; | ||
| 60 |
pace loquar Veneris, tu dea maior eris. |
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| per tibi tot iuro testes pompamque deorum, | ||
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te dominam nobis tempus in omne peti! |
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| Sed pendent tibi crura. potes, si forte iuvabit, | ||
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cancellis primos inseruisse pedes. |
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| 65 | maxima iam vacuo praetor spectacula circo |  |
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quadriiugos aequo carcere misit equos. |
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| cui studeas, video. vincet, cuicumque favebis. | ||
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quid cupias, ipsi scire videntur equi. |
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| me miserum, metam spatioso circuit orbe! | ||
| 70 | ||
| quid facis, infelix? perdis bona vota puellae. | ||
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tende, precor, valida lora sinistra manu! |
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| favimus ignavo — sed enim revocate, Quirites, | ||
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et date iactatis undique signa togis! |
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| 75 | en, revocant! — at, ne turbet toga mota capillos, |  |
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| Iamque patent iterum reserato carcere postes; | ||
| nunc saltem supera spatioque insurge patenti! | ||
| 80 |
sint mea, sint dominae fac rata vota meae! |
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| Sunt dominae rata vota meae, mea vota supersunt. | ||
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ille tenet palmam; palma petenda mea est." |
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| Risit, et argutis quiddam promisit ocellis. | ||
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"Hoc satis est, alio cetera redde loco!" |
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