in? 
You’ll swamp us all:”  so, while our fares we pay,
And the mule’s tied, a whole hour slips away. 
No hope of sleep:  the tenants of the marsh,
Hoarse frogs and shrill mosquitos, sing so harsh,
While passenger and boatman chant the praise
Of their true-loves in amoebean lays,
Each fairly drunk:  the passenger at last
Tires of the game, and soon his eyes are fast: 
Then to a stone his mule the boatman moors,
Leaves her to pasture, lays him down, and snores. 
And now ’twas near the dawning of the day,
When ’tis discovered that we make no way: 
Out leaps a hair-brained fellow and attacks
With a stout cudgel mule’s and boatman’s backs: 
And so at length, thanks to this vigorous friend,
By ten o’clock we reach our boating’s end. 
Tired with the voyage, face and hands we lave
In pure Feronia’s hospitable wave. 
We take some food, then creep three miles or so
To Anxur, built on cliffs that gleam like snow;
There rest awhile, for there our mates were due,
Maecenas and Cocceius, good and true,
Sent on a weighty business, to compose
A feud, and make them friends who late were foes. 
I seize on the occasion, and apply
A touch of ointment to an ailing eye. 
Meanwhile Maecenas with Cocceius came,
And Capito, whose errand was the same,
A man of men, accomplished and refined,
Who knew, as few have known, Antonius’ mind. 
Along by Fundi next we take our way
For all its praetor sought to make us stay,
Not without laughter at the foolish soul,
His senatorial stripe and pan of coal. 
Then at Mamurra’s city we pull up,
Lodge with Murena, with Fonteius sup. 
Next morn the sun arises, O how sweet! 
At Sinnessa we with Plotius meet,
Varius and Virgil; men than whom on earth
I know none dearer, none of purer worth. 
O what a hand-shaking! while sense abides,
A friend to me is worth the world besides. 
Campania’s border-bridge next day we crossed,
There housed and victualled at the public cost. 
The next, we turn off early from the road
At Capua, and the mules lay down their load;
There, while Maecenas goes to fives, we creep,
Virgil and I, to bed, and so to sleep: 
For, though the game’s a pleasant one to play,
Weak stomachs and weak eyes are in the way. 
Then to Cocceius’ country-house we come,
Beyond the Caudian inns, a sumptuous home. 
Now, Muse, recount the memorable fight
’Twixt valiant Messius and Sarmentus wight,
And tell me first from what proud lineage sprung
The champions joined in battle, tongue with tongue. 
From Oscan blood great Messius’ sires derive: 
Sarmentus has a mistress yet alive. 
Such was their parentage:  they meet in force: 
Sarmentus starts:  “You’re just like a wild horse.” 
We burst into a laugh.  The other said,
“Well, here’s a horse’s trick:”  and tossed his head. 
“O, were your horn yet growing, how your foe