[188] _Seneca_, Controv., I. 2., Da mihi lenonis rationes; captura conveniet. (Give me the brothel-keeper’s accounts; the fee will suit).
[189] _Seneca_, Controv., I. 2., Deducta es in lupanar, accepisti locum, _pretium constitutum est_. (You were taken to a brothel, you took your place, your price was fixed). _Ovid_, Amores, I. 10., Stat meretrix cuivis _certo_ mercabilis aere. (There stands the harlot that any man can buy for a _fixed_ sum). The fee was called _captura_ (fee) (compare _Schulting_, on Seneca, loco citato, and _Casaubon_ on Suetonius, Caligula 40.), _quaestus meretricius_ (harlot’s hire) (_Cicero_, Philipp. II. 18.) or simply _quaestus_ (hire); _merces_ (cost) and _pretium stupri_ (price of fornication); _aurum lustrale_ (brothel, literally _den_, money). The women used to demand its payment. _Juvenal_, Sat. VI. 125. Excepit blanda intrantes atque aera poposcit. (Blandly she welcomed her visitors as they entered and asked for the fee). Hence the expression “basia meretricum poscinummia” (harlots kisses that ask for money) in _Apuleius_, Met., X. p. 248. For the rest prices were very various among the brothel-harlots as they were with the others. Comp. _Martial_, X. 75., IX. 33., III. 54. The lowest fee was one As or 2 obols (three pence); hence girls of the sort were called by the Romans also _diobolares meretrices_ (two-obol harlots) (Festus) or _diobolaria scorta_ (two-obol whores) (_Plautus_, Poen., I. 2. 58.). Comp. p. 90 above.
[190] _Plautus_, Trinum., IV. 2. 47., Quae adversum legem accepisti a plurimis pecuniam. (You who contrary to the regulation accepted money from a great many men).
[191] Hence the women were also called _Nonariae_ (Ninth-hour women). _Persius_, Sat. I. 133. The Scholiast observes on the passage: Nonaria dicta meretrix, quia apud veteres a nona hora prostabant, ne mane omissa exercitatione illo irent adolescentes. (A harlot was called “Nonaria”, because in former times they used to act as prostitutes from the ninth hour only, for fear the young men should resort thither in the morning to the neglect of their athletic exercises).
[192] _Nonius Marcellus_, V. § 8., Inter _meretricem_ et _prostibulum_ hoc interest: quod meretrix honestioris loci est et quaestus: nam _meretrices_ a merendo dictae sunt, quod copiam sui tantummodo noctu facerent: _prostibula_, quod ante stabulum stent quaestus diurni et nocturni causa. (This is the difference between a _meretrix_ (harlot) and a _prostibulum_ (common strumpet): a meretrix is of a more honorable station and calling; for _meretrices_ were so named a _merendo_ (from earning wages), because they plied their calling only by night; _prostibula_, because they stand before the _stabulum_ (stall, “chamber”) for gain both by day and night).—_Plautus_, Cistell. fragm., Adstat ea in via sola: prostibula sane est. (She stands there in the way alone: surely she is a _prostibula_—common whore).