Erg monologue — The Captivi and the Mostellaria

The young men have given me the name of "the mistress," for this reason, because invocated [1] I am wont to attend at the banquet. I know that buffoons [2] say that this is absurdly said, but I affirm that it is rightly _said_. For at the banquet the lover, when he throws the dice, invokes his mistress.[3] Is she _then_ invocated, or _is she_ not? She is, most clearly. But, i' faith, we Parasites with better reason _are so called_, whom no person ever either invites or invokes, _and who_, like mice, are always eating the victuals of another person. When business is laid aside [4], when people repair to the country, at that same moment is business laid aside for our teeth. Just as, when it is hot weather, snails lie hidden in secret, _and_ live upon their own juices, if the dew doesn't fall; so, when business is laid aside, do Parasites lie hidden in retirement, _and_ miserably live upon their own juices, while in the country the persons are rusticating whom they sponge upon. When business is laid aside, we Parasites are greyhounds; when business recommences, _like_ mastiffs [5], we are annoying-like and very troublesome-like [6].