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Epigrams, I, Spectacles, Books 1-5
Written to celebrate the 80 CE opening of the Roman Colosseum, Martial's first book of poems, "On the Spectacles," tells of the shows in the new arena. The great Latin epigrammist's twelve subsequent books capture the spirit of Roman life in vivid detail. Fortune hunters and busybodies, orators and lawyers, schoolmasters and acrobats, doctors and plagiarists, beautiful slaves and generous hosts populate his witty verses. We glimpse here the theater, public games, life in the countryside, banquets, lions in the amphitheater, the eruption of Vesuvius. Martial's epigrams are sometimes obscene, sometimes affectionate and amusing, and always pointed. Like his contemporary Statius, though, Martial shamelessly flatters his patron Domitian, one of Rome's worst-reputed emperors.
Shackleton Bailey's translation of Martial's often difficult Latin eliminates many misunderstandings in previous versions. The text is mainly that of his highly praised Teubner edition of 1990 ("greatly superior to its predecessors," R. G. M. Nisbet wrote in Classical Review).
These volumes replace the earlier Loeb edition with translation by Walter C. A. Ker (1919).
425 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 103
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About the author
Marcus Valerius Martialis
575Ìýbooks62ÌýfollowersBorn: March 1, 40 AD, in Augusta Bilbilis (now Calatayud, Spain); Died: ca. 102 AD--Marcus Valerius Martialis, known in English as Martial, was a Latin poet from Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. Considered the creator of the modern epigram, Martial wrote a total of 1,561 - 1,235 of which are in elegiac couplets.
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August 28, 2017We have tried through the years,
You to speak and I to hear,
Insult comic of imperial times,
'Tis better to prompt a laugh
than provoke tears.
Worse yet is to elicit shrugs.
Martial, I turn
a jilting lover's words on their ear:
The problem is not me; it's you.
June 1, 2022
I’ve been hearing quotes from and references to Martial’s Epigrams for almost seven decades now, including reading some in the Latin, but this is the first time I’ve read him systematically. The edition I have contains his On the Spectacles and Books 1-5 of the Epigrams.
Marcus Valerius Martialis was a Roman of the Equestrian Order, born in Spain in 40 A.D. (or near enough) and dying there around 103. He spent his adult life in Rome itself, and earned fame (and therefore patronage) by writing satirical, sarcastic, ironic and sometimes praising verse epigrams about life in the upper classes of the City. A great deal of what we know or suspect about daily life there is based on his remarks, and we often learn what the norms and rules of basic behavior were, by Martial recording the way people cheated or broke them.
Two of my favorite bits are in Book I. The first is the last line of #15: “Tomorrow’s life is too late. Live today.� (The last piece is “vive hodie.�) The second is a description of the book itself, and a remark on writing as a whole, being #16: “There are good things that you read here, and some indifferent, and more bad. Not otherwise, Avitus, is a book made.� So true.
If you’re interested in actual life in Classical Rome, as opposed to just history, these pages are full of it. You may not need the Latin text in this Loeb edition, but the explanatory footnotes are very helpful.
There’s a reason so much of Martial’s text survived into the modern era, and that reason is human interest. Recommended.
Marcus Valerius Martialis was a Roman of the Equestrian Order, born in Spain in 40 A.D. (or near enough) and dying there around 103. He spent his adult life in Rome itself, and earned fame (and therefore patronage) by writing satirical, sarcastic, ironic and sometimes praising verse epigrams about life in the upper classes of the City. A great deal of what we know or suspect about daily life there is based on his remarks, and we often learn what the norms and rules of basic behavior were, by Martial recording the way people cheated or broke them.
Two of my favorite bits are in Book I. The first is the last line of #15: “Tomorrow’s life is too late. Live today.� (The last piece is “vive hodie.�) The second is a description of the book itself, and a remark on writing as a whole, being #16: “There are good things that you read here, and some indifferent, and more bad. Not otherwise, Avitus, is a book made.� So true.
If you’re interested in actual life in Classical Rome, as opposed to just history, these pages are full of it. You may not need the Latin text in this Loeb edition, but the explanatory footnotes are very helpful.
There’s a reason so much of Martial’s text survived into the modern era, and that reason is human interest. Recommended.
December 20, 2019
to quote regina george, a near-epigrammatic queen: stop trying to make [epigram as a formal genre] happen! it's not going to happen!
i did enjoy 5.20 and 5.58, but i also felt myself nearing my grave. and this is just 1-5 + specs. martial's great technically but he's mean and not really THAT funny and just like way too precise. his obscenity isn't that clever, and he's not sexy or romantic ever. epigram is messy. let it be messy. shhhhhh.
i did enjoy 5.20 and 5.58, but i also felt myself nearing my grave. and this is just 1-5 + specs. martial's great technically but he's mean and not really THAT funny and just like way too precise. his obscenity isn't that clever, and he's not sexy or romantic ever. epigram is messy. let it be messy. shhhhhh.
April 19, 2023
Masterpiece of Roman wisdom.
Here’s an example:
Pulchre valet Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Parce bibit Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Bene concoquit Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Sole utitur Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Tingit cutem Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Cunnum Charinus lingit, et tamen pallet.
Charinus is in the pink, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus drinks sparingly, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus has a good digestion, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus goes out in the sun, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus paints his skin, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus licks a cunt, and yet he’s pale.
Here’s an example:
Pulchre valet Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Parce bibit Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Bene concoquit Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Sole utitur Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Tingit cutem Charinus, et tamen pallet.
Cunnum Charinus lingit, et tamen pallet.
Charinus is in the pink, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus drinks sparingly, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus has a good digestion, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus goes out in the sun, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus paints his skin, and yet he’s pale.
Charinus licks a cunt, and yet he’s pale.
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