294 The Honey-Makers 



Concerning the " Attic Hybla," over which the bees in 

 this erotic epigram wander, Martial himself offers an expla- 

 nation when he says, — 



" When you make a present of Sicilian honeycomb from 

 amid the hills of Hybla, you may call them Attic." 



This license was probably based upon the fact that the 

 Hyblaean honey did much resemble the Hymettian, and was 

 gathered by a colony of people founded by an Athenian. 



In another epigram Martial thus addresses Neevolus : 



" Like as flowery Hybla is variegated with many a color, 

 when the Sicilian bees are laying waste the fleeting gifts of 

 spring, so your presses shine with piles of cloaks, your 

 wardrobe gUstens with uncounted robes. And your white 

 garments, which the land of Apulia produced from more 

 than one flock, would clothe a whole tribe.'' 



Martial expresses his gratification in the success of his 

 epigrams when writing to Lausus : — 



" It is reported (if fame says true) that the beautiful town 

 of Vienna counts the perusal of my works among its pleas- 

 ures. I am read there by every old man, every youth, 

 and every boy, and by the chaste young matron in presence 

 of her grave husband. This triumph affords me more 

 pleasure than if my verse were recited by those who drink 

 the Nile at its very source, or than if my own Tagus loaded 

 me with Spanish gold, or Hybla and Hymettus fed my 

 bees." 



Writing upon the favorite of Domitian, whose name, 

 Earinus, signifies spring. Martial says : — 



" You have a name which designates the season of the 

 new-born year, when the Cecropian bees plunder the short- 

 lived vernal flowers." 



The honey of Corsica was as renowned for its bad quali- 

 ties as that of Hybla and Hymettus was for its good, and 

 Martial thus refers to it : — 



