Book III, Epigram 20 (Ker)

Tell me, Muse, what my Canius Rufus is doing. Is he committing to immortal pages, for men to read, the deeds of Claudian times? or does he emulate the works the lying chronicler ascribes to Nero? or the jests of naughty Phaedrus f is he wanton in elegy or severe in heroics? or terrible in Sophoclean buskin? or does he, idling in the Poets' School, tell witty stories touched with Attic grace? If he has gone hence, does he tread the Temple's piazza, or idly stroll along the expanse of the Argonauts? Or again, does he sit or walk, free of anxious care, amid the box-trees, warm after noon, of Europa luxuriating in the sun? Does he bathe in Titus' or Agrippa's warm baths, or in the bath of shameless Tigellinus? Does he enjoy the country seat of Tullus and Lucanus? or is he driving to Pollio's charming house at the fourth milestone? or setting out for steaming Baiae does he now sail lazily on the Lucrine mere? "Do you wish to know what your Canius is doing? He is laughing."