One of the most famous inscriptions to have survived from ancient Rome is the acta of the Ludi Saeculares of 17 b.c. (CIL 6.32323 = ILS 5050), and one of the most evocative of all epigraphic sentences occupies a line to itself (149): Carmen composuit Q. Horatius Flaccus. This reference to the author of the Carmen Saeculare, says Fraenkel, ‘was the result of a carefully considered decision of the highest authorities’. The degree of careful consideration is initially evident from the prominent positioning of the poet's name directly above those of Augustus and Agrippa in the following line. It will also be noticed that the sentence concludes with a clausula (cretic + spondee) which is one of Cicero's favourites. A further refinement emerges, however, if the poet's name is spelled out in full, something precluded by the naming conventions of the inscription:

Cārmēn cōmpŏsŭīt ´ Quīntŭs Hŏrātĭūs | Flaccus.

In Plautus’ Mercator, the senex amator Demipho lusts after the slave girl Pasicompsa, who is the lover of his son Charinus. Demipho knows nothing about their relationship. He believes that Charinus bought Pasicompsa as a present for his mother while he was trading on Rhodes. In an attempt to gain access to her, Demipho enlists the aid of his elderly neighbour, Lysimachus, who taunts him for his infatuation with such a young woman. Eager to persuade Lysimachus that he is truly in love, Demipho offers to let him cut off his head, finger, ear, nose or lip, or even kill him with love if he is lying about his feelings (308–10):

decide collum stanti si falsum loquor;
uel, ut scias me amare, cape cultrum, [ac] seca
digitum uel aurem uel tu nasum uel labrum:
si mouero me seu secari sensero,
Lysimache, auctor sum ut me amando enices.

Lines 3.20–2 of the text published by Justin Stover as Apuleius’ De Platone 3 are printed by him as follows:

Catalepton 10 (Sabinus ille) is a unique survival from antiquity: it is the only parody of an entire poem to reach us, and is written in pure iambic trimeters, a near intractable metre. Addressed to Sabinus, an upstart muleteer, the poem launches a stinging attack at him, and draws attention to his status as a parvenu. It remains incredibly close to its charming model—Catullus 4 (Phaselos ille)—in structural, lexical, stylistic and metrical terms, but rather different in purport. In attempting to reassess a number of problems in the text of the poem, the textual critic ought largely to be guided by the relationship of Sabinus ille to its model, as it is clear that the author of Catalepton 10 was an incredibly close reader of the Catullan text and sought not only to imitate through parody but also to subvert and deflate his predecessor's poem.

In lines 646–60 of his translation of Aratus’ Phaenomena, Germanicus narrates the story of Orion, the mythical hunter killed by a scorpion sent by Diana because of his attempt to rape the goddess, and then transformed into a star. In particular, line 651 describes Orion's hunting:

nudabatque feris angusto stipite siluas.

In Book 6 of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, Lucius contemplates his possible death at the hands of the robbers. After one robber threatens to throw him off a cliff, he remarks to himself how easily such an act would kill him (Met. 6.26):

Lucius seems to contradict the description of his metamorphosis at 3.24: pili mei crassantur in setas, et cutis tenella duratur in corium, ‘my hair thickens into bristles and my thin skin hardens into hide’. Met. 6.26 suggests that Lucius’ metamorphosis may not be as complete as it initially seemed: his skin is not the thick hide of an ass but the delicate membrane of a leech. This passage is further complicated by a textual dispute: where all modern editions and most translations read hirudinis, ‘leech’, our earliest and best manuscripts have hirundinis, ‘swallow’. I propose that we should restore ‘swallow’ on the testimony of these manuscripts and because it better reflects Lucius’ initial desire for an avian rather than an asinine transformation. My examination of this passage will also highlight the liminal nature of Lucius’ metamorphosis. Despite his apparent physical transformation, he remains caught between the human and the animal worlds in both mind and body.

In a chapter illustrating outrageous words and criminal deeds (dicta improba aut facta scelerata), Valerius Maximus, the Tiberian editor of exempla, includes in his list of foreign (externa) examples reference to an impious son, Mithridates, who fought with his father over who should rule (9.11.ext.2):

The kleptocratic supremacy of the praetorian prefect C. Fulvius Plautianus (PIR2 F 554) was felt throughout the city of Rome, the Empire and (according to one author) even beyond the imperial frontiers. Indeed, for the senatorial historian Dio Cassius, there was no more picturesque demonstration of Plautianus' acquisitiveness than his seizure of strange striped horse-like creatures from ‘islands in the Erythraean Sea’. The passage, as preserved in the text of Xiphilinus' Epitome, reads as follows (Dio Cass. 76[75].14.3):

In this short note I shall address a problem of word order in a passage of Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis by pointing out an attractive variant in the key codex Traguriensis, which has been neglected thus far.

In Silv. 4.4 Statius pays homage to Vitorius Marcellus, the young dedicatee of the poem (for this small but meaningful detail, see Stat. Silv. 4.4.45 iuuenes … annos; 4.4.74 iuuenemque … parentem), praising his skills as an orator (4.4.39–45) and foreseeing a brilliant military career for him (4.4.61–4). The last point is highlighted in a brief portrait of Marcellus as a perfect foot soldier and horseman (4.4.64–9):

… nec enim tibi sola potentis
eloquii uirtus: sunt membra accommoda bellis    65
quique grauem tarde subeant thoraca lacerti.
seu campo pedes ire pares, est agmina supra
nutaturus apex, seu frena sonantia flectes,
seruiet asper equus.

In her book The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity (Cambridge, 2008), Stephanie Budin compiles and analyses an impressive array of literary sources which describe, or have been interpreted as describing, several practices that modern scholars have collectively and variously called sacred, ritual, cultic or temple prostitution. In general, as Budin explains, ‘[s]acred prostitution is the sale of a person's body for sexual purposes where some portion (if not all) of the money or goods received for this transaction belongs to a deity … usually Aphrodite’. Three major subtypes include ‘once-in-a-lifetime prostitution and/or sale of virginity in honor of a goddess’, activity that ‘involves women (and men?) who are professional prostitutes and who are owned by a deity or a deity's sanctuary’, and ‘a temporary type of sacred prostitution, where the women (and men?) are either prostitutes for a limited period of time before being married, or only prostitute themselves during certain rituals’.