Featured Graffiti: Poetry
Find out which poets the ancients frequently quoted and the ups and downs of their feelings for the goddess Venus.
[A]rma virumque cano Troia(e) qui primus ab oris
I sing of arms and the man who first from the shores of Troy...
(This is the first line of Vergil's Aeneid)
Fullones ululamque cano, non arma virumq(ue)
I sing of dry-cleaners and the owl, not arms and the man
militat omnis (amans)
Every lover is a soldier
(This line comes from Ovid's Amores 1.9.1)
(Quis)quis amat valeat. Pereat qui
nescit amare. Bis tanto pereat
quisquis amare vetat.
Whoever loves, may they be well.
May he perish, whoever knows not how to love.
Whoever forbids love, may he perish twice over.
Quisquis amat veniat. Veneri volo frangere costas
fustibus et lumbos debilitare deae.
Si potest illa mihi tenerum pertundere pectus,
quit (cur) ego non possim caput illae frangere fuste?
Whoever loves, may he come. I want to break Venus' ribs with clubs and incapacitate the goddess' loins. If she can pierce my tender heart, why can't I break her head with a club?