Carmen 81 –

Line 1 suggests that the scene is Rome. Thomson (1997, 508) thinks that Juventius's
new favorite may have been Aurelius (cf. 15, 16, 21, 23, 24), with a rather
forced pun on inaurata (4), but this is highly speculative. Provinciality (in the modern
sense) (3) is always good for a put-down in this provincial's book, and a sallowcomplexioned
provincial would be better still. Worst of all, he is not bellus, i.e.,
smart or stylish. The "seaside snooze-pit" was Pisaurum (modern Pesaro), an Umbrian
town and former Roman colony on the Adriatic coast. That it was a deadand-
alive hole is shown (Fordyce 1961, 371) by the fact that new settlers were sent
out there in 43 B.C.E.; cf. Carratello 1995,40.