Beatus Paulus

Facere in Lyciscam, Paule, me iubes versus, quibus illa lectis rubeat et sitirata. O Paule, malus es: irrumare vis solus. You bid me, Paulus, write against Lycisca verses At which she would blush and be enraged. O, Paulus, you are a rogue! You want to keep her to yourself!

Martial, Epigrams, Book 4, XVII
English translation by Walter C. A. Ker

Ballet dancer Ekaterina Valentinovna Shipulina performs during a celebration for the 90th birthday of Soviet and Russian composer Aleksandra Nikolayevna Pakhmutova at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Photo: Ilya Pitalev/Sputnik.