Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis

A comparison of Martial with the Greek Anthology suggests three points worthy of notice. (I) By epigram the Greeks normally understood a short poem in elegiac couplets, and the overwhelming majority of the epigrams in the Greek Anthology conforms to that definition. We do, indeed, though very rarely, find other metres used, e.g., hendecasyllables, A.P. v. 3o8, etc., iambic trimeter, A.P. vi. 107, etc., pure hexameters, A.P. v. 109, etc. But in Martial, though the elegiac still constitutes the normal type, other metres occupy a very considerable place. The metres other than elegiac which Martial uses are: (I) hendecasyllables, e.g., x.9.1. Undenis pedibusque syllabisque, (2) pure hexameters, i. 53, etc., (3) iambic trimeter scazon, e.g., vii.26.I, Apollinarem conveni meum, scazon, (4) iambic trimeter alternating with iambic trimeter, e.g., i. 49 Vir Celtiberis non tacende gentibus Nostraeque laus Hispaniae, (5) iambic trimeter scazon alternat ing with ordinary iambic dimeters, e.g., i.61 Verona docti syllabas amat vatis Marone felix Mantua est, (6) pure iambic trimeters, e.g., vi. 12 Iurat capillos esse quos emit suos. This feature of Martial is probably due, like much else in Martial, to the in fluence of Catullus, who again was much influenced by the Alexandrines. (2) Whereas the typical epigram of the Greek Anthology does not exceed some eight lines, in Martial 20 to 3o lines is not unusual—iii. 58 extends to 51 lines. Ep. vi. 64 is in pure hexameters and extends to 32 lines. It is followed by a defence in vi. 65. "I know that Tucca says 'you write epigrams in hexameters': Tucca, it is a usual practice and lastly it is legitimate. 'But this is long': that also, Tucca, is usual and legitimate (solet licetque). If you approve of shorter epigrams, you should read only distichs. Let's make a bargain—that I be allowed to write long epigrams, you to skip them." (3) The typical epigram in Martial depends for its effect on some witty turn at the end, a "sting" in the tail. This is again a departure from the Greek model, but the development can easily be traced from Alexandrine times. Martial's own point of view may be gathered from vii. 25, where he indicates that epigrams without point and pungency are food only for babes.

Character of His Epigrams.

The subject-matter of the epigrams embraces the whole range of the life of a man about town, and from this point of view their value to the student of Roman life and manners is inestimable. They bear witness alike to the nobler aspects of that life and to the more ignoble. The ugliest feature of Martial's work is the gross indecency—with no plea or palliation of comic effect—which disfigures some— not relatively a large proportion—of his epigrams. It is difficult to imagine the tone of a society which could not merely tolerate but even applaud such language. Martial defends himself on the ground of traditional usage. "I should have apologized," he says (pref. to Bk. i.), "for the lascivious frankness of speech, the language, that is, of my epigrams, had I been setting the example; but it is thus that Catullus writes, thus Marsus, thus Pedo, thus Gaetulicus, thus every author whose work is read to an end.

If however any one is so ostentatiously austere that in his presence one can in no page speak Latin, he may content himself with this letter, or even with the title. The Epigrams are written for those who are accustomed to see the Festival of Flora. Let Cato not enter my theatre, or, if he enter, let him look on." Two things may be noted : Martial considered himself in this matter superior to the generality. In x. 9. 2 he describes himself as known "for much wit and that not wanton" (Et multo sale nec tamen protervo), and in xii.43.II he protests to one who had recited to him eloquent lines on libidinous topics—Tanti non erat esse to disertum, Your eloquence was too dearly purchased at such a price. In the dedication to Domitian prefixed to Bk. viii. he writes: "Although men the most austere and of the highest rank have written epigrams affecting a liberty of language ap propriate to mimes, yet I have not permitted mine to speak so frankly as is usual." (2) Martial protests that licence in speech does not imply licentiousness of life : Lasciva est nobis paging, vita proba (i.4.8). In any case his candour disarms criticism: Non potes in nugas dicere plura meas Ipse ego quam dixi. . . . Nos haec novimus esse nihil (xiii.2).

Emotional Quality in Poems.—Among the more pleasant features of his poetry are his genuine feeling for the simpler aspects of country life, which reveals itself in many charming pictures (i.49, i-55, iii.58, etc.) the tenderness which shows itself in his sepulchral epigrams, some of which are worthy to stand beside the best Greek examples, such as those on Alcimus (i.88) and Canace (xi.91) or this—one of several—on Erotion, a little slave girl who died in infancy : Here, ah ! too soon, Erotion takes her sleep, Whom Death's fell scythe ere her sixth year did reap.

0 whoso henceforth shall this land possess, If thou be kind this little grave to dress, Long may thy tenure be, and through the years May thy heart know no other place for tears! (x.6i).

and

finally his affection for his native Bilbilis, to which "after four and thirty harvests" the tired exile returns, having known fame and friends, but also having suffered the disillusion which suggests that sad and sober philosophy of friendship, enunciated long before in Euripides (Hippol. 253 seq.) and Sophocles (Aj. 678 seq.) : Nulli to facias nimis sodalem, Gaudebis minus et minus dolebis (xii.34.Io seq.).

BotioGRAPHY.—Critical text, Lindsay (Oxford, 1902) ; Gilbert (Leipzig, 1886) ; critical text and commentary, L. Friedlander (Leip zig, 1886) ; selections with notes, Paley and Stone (London, 1875) Stephenson (London, 188o).

See also Edwin Post, Selected Epigrams of Martial (1908) with introduction and notes; G. Thiele, Die Poesie unter Dotnitian, Hermes 51 (1916) ; the translation into English verse by Elphinston (London, 1782) is famous for its absurdity, which drew an epigram from Burns.