MARTIAL, iniir'shal (M.Inct's VALERIUS INIAnriAus). The first of Roman epigram matists. Ile was born at Tihin7s. in Spain, March I, A.D. the exact year is in doubt. In Of he came to Rome, where Ito resided till 95. when he returned to his native town. Ifere he found many good friends and patrons, and a highly eultivated lady named Marcella made him a present of a small estate. where passed in re pose the following years until his death. which occurred not later than _%.D. Mt. While at Rome Martial became famous as a wit and poet, and re ceived the patronage of the emperors Titus and Domitian. Ile lived in a sort of precarious af fluence in a mansion in the eity, and in Nomen tinn, a suburban villa, to both of which he makes frequent From Rome his reputation rapidly extended to the provinces: and even in Britain his Epigrammata, which, divided into fourteen books, now form his extant works. were familiarly rend. These books. which were ar ran.red by himself for publication, were written in the order: The first eleven. ineluding the Libra- (1c Spretaculis, were composed at Rome, with the exception of the third, whieb was writ ten during a tour in Gallia Togata: the twelfth was written at Bilbilis, and the thirteenth and fourteenth at Rome. under Domitian. The last,
two, entitled _Xenia and Apophorcto, describe in distiehs the various kinds of souvenirs presented by the Romans to each other on holidays. To the other books we are also indebted for much of our knowledge of the manners and customs which pre vailed under the Empire from Nero to Trajan. llis works have also a great literary value, as embodying the first specimens of what we now understand by epigram—not a mere inscrip tion, lint a poem of two oi' more lines. eon taining the terms of an antithesis. whieh ends with a witty or ingenious tarn of thought. The wonderful inventiveness and faeility displayed by Martial in this species of composition have al ways received the highest admiration. only quali fied by his (Bs..listing grossness. The best edition of Martial is that of Friedliinder (2 vols..
15501 ; a handy text edition is that of Gil bert i Leipzig, Ile has never found an adequate translator. hat a collection of transla tions in prose and verse will be found in P.ohn's "Classical Library,"