Book III, Epigram 47 (Ker)

Where the Capene Gate drips with heavy drops, and where Almo washes the Phrygian Mother's knife, where the plain, hallowed by the Horatii, is green, and where the temple of the little Hercules is thronged, Bassus was riding, Faustinas, in a travel ling carriage crammed full, dragging with him all the abundance of the rich country. There might you see cabbages with noble heads, and each kind of leek, and squat lettuces, and beets not unserviceable to a sluggish stomach; there a hoop heavy with fat fieldfares, and a hare that had been wounded by the fang of a Gallic hound, and a sucking-pig too young to munch beans. Nor was the runner taking holiday; he went before the vehicle carrying eggs protected by straw. Was Bassus making for the city? On the contrary: he was going into the country.