MARTIAL (MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS) (b. between A.D. 38 and 41, died c. A.D. 502), Roman epigrammatist, was born at Bilbilis (Bambola), in Spain (Mart. i. 61. II Te, Liciniane, glori abitur nostra Nec me tacebit Bilbilis). The date of his birth is inferred from his own words in x. 24, where he celebrates his 57th birthday on March i (cf. X. 92. IO, Martem mearum principem Kalendarum). The poems of Bk. x. belong to the years 95-98.
In 64 he came to Rome, where, apart from a brief visit to Cisalpine Gaul (cf. iii. 1, iii. 4) in A.D. 88, he made his home for 34 years. Living at first in rather humble circum stances (i. 117, 7 scalis habito tribus sed altis), he gradually made headway and was able to have, in addition to his town house on the Quirinal (x. 58. io), a small country place at Nomentum (ii. 38, vi. 43, xii. 57) in the Sabine territory. He won the ear of the Court and received from Titus and Domitian the ius trium liber orum (ii. 91-92, ix. 97, 5, tribuit quod Caesar uterque ius mihi natorum), a privilege which permitted a person to hold a public office before his 25th year and be exempted from public burdens. Though, strictly, it belonged to the father of three legitimate children, it was frequently conferred on those who had fewer than three children, or even none at all (cf. Plin. Ep. ii. 13). He also obtained a military tribuneship and the dignities of an eques Romanus (iii. 95, 9). In A.D. 98 he finally left Rome to return to his native Bilbilis (xii. 18), where he lived on an estate presented to him by his friend Marcella (xii. 31.7, post septima lustra reverso Hos Marcella lares parvaque regna dedit). Here he wrote and published the last (xii.) book of his Epigrams and soon after died. Literary Friendships.—At Rome he seemed to have enjoyed the friendship of all the leading literary men of his time. Pliny the Younger (Ep. iii. 21) describes his feelings on hearing of the poet's death : "I hear that Valerius Martial has died and I am grieved. He was a man able, acute and keen, who in his wriLing had .wit and pungency and not less of candour. When he was leav ing Rome I presented him with his travelling expenses (viaticum), a tribute to friendship, a tribute also to the lines he wrote about me." The lines in question are in our texts x. 19, of which Pliny,
in his letter, quotes the last ten lines. Quintilian is addressed in ii.
90: 0 chiefest ruler of our wayward youth, Quintilian, glory of the Roman gown, I crave thy pardon if still young nor yet made useless by the years I haste to live True life, which no man hastes enough to live. Howbeit if any is fain to gather wealth Beyond his fathers and to crowd his halls with busts of mighty men, his ancestors, He may defer the day of life, but me the hearth and halls that scorn not sooty smoke Delight, the living spring, the simple grass. Give me my well-fed servant and a wife. No more than needful learned, sleep o' nights, And days untroubled by the law's delays.
Lucan is the theme of vii. 21-23, the first and the last of these epigrams being addressed to Polla, Lucan's widow. Juvenal, with whom Martial deprecates comparison (vii.24), is addressed in xii. 18. Silius Italicus is addressed in iv. 14 and mentioned in vi. 64. 1o, vii.63.I, xi.48.1, xi.49.3 seq., while i.76, iv.42, iv.49 are addressed to Valerius Flaccus, who is referred to also in i.61.4. There appears to be no reference to Statius either by name or by implication.
Martial's work consists of :
The so-called Liber Spectaculorum (33 epigrams), written in connection with the opening of the Colosseum, an amphitheatre in the middle of the city which had been begun by Vespasian (Sueton. Vesp. 9) and was finished by Titus (Suet. Tit. 7) in A.D. 79. (2) Two books of epigrams (in modern editions Bks. xiii. and xiv.) entitled Xenia and Apophoreta, two-line inscriptions for presents, pub lished at the Saturnalia of 84. (3) Twelve books of epigrams, of which i. and ii. were published in 86 and iii.-xi. between then and 98. Bk. x. was first published under Domitian, but the re vised edition (our present text) belongs to 98. Bk. xii. was writ ten after his final return to Bilbilis. The prose prefaces to Bks. i., ii., viii. (dedication to Domitian), xii. are of considerable interest.