Book VI, Epigram 42 (Ker)

If you do not bathe in the warm baths of Etruseus, you will die unbathed, Oppianus. No other waters will so allure you, not even the springs of Aponus unknown to women; not mild Sinuessa, and the waves of steaming Passer, or towering Anxur; not the waters of Phoebus,- and peerless Baiae. Nowhere is the sunlit sheen so cloudless; the very light is longer there, and from no spot does day withdraw more lingeringly. There the quarries of Taygetus are green, and in varied beauty vie the rocks which the Phrygian and Libyan has more deeply hewn. The rich alabaster pants with dry heat, and snake-stone is warm with a subtle fire. If Lacedaemonian methods please you, you can content yourself with dry warmth, and then plunge in the natural stream of the Virgin or of Marcia, which glistens so bright and clear that you would not suspect any water there, but would fancy the Lygdian marble shines empty. You don't attend, but have been listening to me all this time with a casual ear, as if you didn't care. You will die unbathed, Oppianus!