Ficosa est uxor, ficosus et ipse maritus, Filia ficosa est, et gener atque nepos. Nec dispensator, nec villicus, _ulcere turpi_, Nec rigidus fossor, sed nec arator eget. Cum sint ficosi pariter iuvenesque senesque, Res mira est, ficus non habet unus ager.
(On a tumourous household.—The goodwife is tumourous, tumourous the goodman her husband, tumourous the daughter of the house, and the son-in-law and the grandson. Neither house-steward nor factor is free of the foul ulcer, nor the rugged ditcher, nor yet the ploughman. Now when all alike, young and old have tumours (ficos, ficus), the strange thing is, not a single field has fig-trees (ficus)). For the rest the words _ulcere turpi_ (foul ulcer) show that _ficus_, like σύκος and σύκωσις (fig, fig-like swelling) in Greek, signifies not only a fig-shaped swelling, but also an ulcer with granulous surface, like a fig cut in two. Or possibly it would be better to understand here swellings that have passed into the ulcerated stage[276].
Seeing how plainly the passages just quoted from non-medical Writers point to these swellings being a consequence of paederastia, it is surprising that not one of the Ancient physicians, spite of _Juvenal’s_ _medico ridente_ (the doctor grinning the while), ever so far as we know, alleges this form of licentiousness as cause of affections of the sort. On the other hand we cannot help remarking that the frequency of these swellings in the time of _Martial_ and _Juvenal_ can hardly be explained as arising solely from the general prevalence of paederastia. More probably, then as now, the _Genius epidemicus_ (Epidemic influences) bore no unimportant share in bringing about the result, just as was the case (see later) with _Mentagra_ (Eruption of the chin).
However not merely primary affections of the posteriors were the punishment of the _Cinaedus_, but also secondary ones of the _mouth_ and _throat_. First and foremost was hoarseness of the voice, to which _Martial_[277] alludes, when he makes the champion of the baths the _cinaedus_ Charinus speak _raucidulo ore_ (with a weak, hoarse voice). This we find, following Reiske’s[278] indication, more explicitly dealt with in _Dio Chrysostom_[279]:—