Book II, Epigram 43 (Ker)

"Friends have all in common." Is this, is this, Candidus, that "all in common" which you night and day mouth pompously? A toga dipt in Lacedaemonian Galaesus enwraps you, or one which Parma has supplied you out of a choice flock; as for mine, it is one which has suffered the fury and horns of a bull, one which the first straw-dummy would refuse to have called its own. The land of Cadmus has sent you Tyrian mantles; my scarlet one you could not sell for sixpence. You poise round Libyan table-tops on legs of Indian ivory; my beechen table is propped on a tile. Mullets of huge size cover your yellow gold-inlaid dishes; thou, O crab, matching its hue, dost blush upon my plate. Your train of slaves might have vied with the cup-bearer from Ilium; but my own hand is Ganymede to serve me. Out of such wealth to your old and trusty comrade do you give nothing, and then say, Candidus, "Friends have all in common "?