Book XI, Epigram 23 (Ker)

SiLA is ready to marry me on any terms, but on no terms am I willing to take Sila to wife. Yet, when she urged me: "You shall bring me, as bride's dower, in gold a million sesterces," I said: "What can be smaller than that? And I will have no marital relations with you even on the wedding-night, nor shall my bed be the same as yours; and I will embrace my mistress, and you shall not forbid me, and, if bidden, you shall send me your own maid. Before your eyes an attendant shall give me wanton kisses, whether he is my own or yours. You shall dine with me, but you shall recline so apart from me that my robe is not touched by yours. Kisses you shall give me but rarely, and you shall not give them uninvited; and you shall not give them like a bride, but like an aged mother. If you can suffer that, if there be nothing you refuse to endure — you will find a man, Sila, who is willing to marry you!"