Now we suffer the evils of a long peace, luxury more savage than arms presses its attack and takes vengeance for the conquered world. No crime or act of lust is absent from where Roman poverty has perished. To here, to these hills, Sybaris, and Rhodes, and Miletus – flowed here - and Tarentum too crowned and with drunken impudence. First tainted money carried in foreign ways, and effeminate riches shattered the ages with foul luxury. … unde haec monstra tamen uel quo de fonte requiris? praestabat castas humilis fortuna Latinas quondam, nec uitiis contingi parua sinebant tecta labor somnique breues et uellere Tusco uexatae duraeque manus ac proximus urbi Hannibal et stantes Collina turre mariti. nunc patimur longae pacis mala, saeuior armis luxuria incubuit uictumque ulciscitur orbem. nullum crimen abest facinusque libidinis ex quo paupertas Romana perit. hinc fluxit ad istos et Sybaris colles, hinc et Rhodos et Miletos atque coronatum et petulans madidumque Tarentum. prima peregrinos obscena pecunia mores intulit, et turpi fregerunt saecula luxu diuitiae molles. … (6.286-300) Synopsis of the Poem by Section Proem lines 6.1-24 – Parody of the golden age myth as dirty cave people. The ages of man: in the golden age no one feared a thief, the silver age had the first adulterers, and the remaining crimes in the Iron Age. The goddesses Pudicitia (Chastity) and Astraea (Justice) withdrew from the earth in disgust. lines 6.25-37 – Are you preparing to get married, Postumus, in this day and age, when you could just commit suicide or sleep with a boy? Lust lines 6.38-59 – The notorious adulterer Ursidius wants a wife and children. He wants a wife of old-fashioned virtue, but he is insane to think he will get one. lines 6.60-81 – Marry a woman and an actor will become a father instead of you. lines 6.82-113 – Eppia, a senator's wife, ran off to Egypt with a gladiator. lines 6.114-141 – Messalina, wife of Claudius, sneaked out of the palace to work at a brothel. Lust is the least of their sins, but greedy husbands allow it for the dowry. lines 6.142-160 – Men love a pretty face, not the woman. When she gets old, they kick her out. Pretentiousness lines 6.161-183 – The narrator would prefer a prostitute for a wife over Cornelia, since virtuous women are often arrogant. A good wife is a rara avis, like a black