Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) - 1.5.2. lyrics

We left Fundi with pleasure, and Aufidius Luscus its ‘praetor', mocking that clerk's mad reward, Bordered robe, a broad-striped tunic, burning charcoal. Tired out we halted at the Mamurra's town next, Murena offered shelter, Capito the cooking. The next day's sunrise brings great joy: since Plotius Varius, and Virgil, meet us at Sinuessa: no more Shining spirits did earth ever bear, and no one Could be more dearly attached to them than I. O what embraces there were there, and what delight! In health, nothing compares for me with friendship's joy. A small villa by the Campanian Bridge offered us Shelter, and the officers, as required, salt and fuel. Then to Capua, where the mules shed their loads early. Maecenas is off for sport, Virgil and I for sleep: Those ball-games are bad for sore eyes and stomachs. Then Cocceius' well-stocked villa welcomes us, That overlooks the inns of Caudium. Now, Muse, Tell briefly of the fight ‘twixt Sarmentus the jester, And Messius Cicirrus, and who their fathers were That joined the fray. Messius of famous Oscan stock: Sarmentus' owner, she's still alive: from such ancestry Did they join battle. Sarmentus first to strike: ‘A horse, I say, a wild one, is what you resemble.' We roar, Messius tosses his head, cries: ‘Yea'. Sarmentus Says: ‘Oh, if your forehead wasn't short of a horn Imagine what you could do, when you threaten us Mutilated so!' An ugly scar marred his hairy brow On the left, you see. Mocking his ‘Campanian' warts And joking about his face, he begged him to dance A dance of the Cyclopean shepherd, while saying He'd not need a mask or the thick soles of Tragedy. Cicirrus struck back fiercely: ‘What about that chain He owed to the Lares? Though a clerk, his lady's power Was no less: and finally he asked why he'd run away Since a bag of meal a day's enough for the slight and lean. So we prolonged that supper with all our laughter.