Book XI, Epigram 15 (Ker)

I have writings that Cato's wife and that grim Sabine dames might read; I wish this little book to laugh from end to end, and be naughtier than all my little books. Let it be drenched in wine and not ashamed to be stained with rich Cosmian unguents; let it play with the boys, love the girls, and in no roundabout phrase speak of that wherefrom we are born, the parent of all, which hallowed Numa ' called by its own name. Yet remember that these verses are of the Saturnalia, Apollinaris: this little book does not express my own morals.