Epigrams by Martial
"Epigrams by Martial" is a collection of satirical poetry composed by the Roman poet Martial, who is renowned as one of the greatest satirists in literary history. Born in Spain, he moved to Rome around 64 CE, where he became a prominent figure under the patronage of influential sponsors, including emperors. Martial's work, which began to be published in annual volumes from 86 CE, consists of approximately fifteen hundred epigrams, celebrated for their sharp wit, irony, and social commentary. His epigrams cover a wide array of topics, ranging from the absurdities of public life and the follies of individuals to the complexities of virtue and vice in Roman society.
Martial often employed humor, including risqué themes, to critique the behavior and morals of his contemporaries, making his observations both entertaining and reflective of the social dynamics of his time. His ability to balance biting satire with moments of tenderness highlights his literary range, as seen in pieces that lament the loss of innocence and youth. The enduring legacy of Martial’s epigrams can be traced through the influence he has had on later writers, such as Shakespeare and Wilde, underscoring his significant role in shaping the epigrammatic form and the tradition of satirical literature.
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Epigrams by Martial
First transcribed:Epigrammata, 86-98 c.e. (English translation, 1860)
Type of work: Poetry
The Work:
Martial was the foremost satirical poet of his day in Rome; he also remains one of the greatest satirists in the history of literature. He was born in modestly comfortable circumstances in the province of Spain, possibly on a farm near Tarraco, and also received his education there. He moved to Rome around 64 c.e. and, most likely, was sponsored by his countrymen, including Seneca the Younger and Lucan. Martial then spent most of his writing career under the patronage of other writers, patrician sponsors, and eventually emperors such as Titus, Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan. A friend of major Roman authors, including Quintilian, Martial was elevated to the equestrian order by Emperor Domitian, although he was not reluctant to satirize even some of his own imperial patrons after their deaths.
Widely considered the master of the short epigram as a literary form, he wrote approximately fifteen books and about fifteen hundred epigrams that were published in annual volumes beginning in 86 c.e. More than twelve hundred of his epigrams were written as couplets, the other three hundred extending to twice as many or more lines. His lively wit and flair for irony are noted in acerbic cheerful observations that marked him as obviously gifted for satire, making him popular in his day and into modern times for lampooning individuals and highlighting notable scandals in Rome in his biting commentary. Martial valued virtue above other human characteristics, where his mocking tone and often humorously salacious descriptions render a naughty side to his wit. Martial is still often perceived as hitting below the belt or even as raunchy as he probes the social life of urban Rome at the end of the first century c.e.
Although Martial sometimes took absences from Rome for a few years, he still composed epigrams and could never stay away from the city too long because Rome itself was his inspiration, supplying him with endless subjects of folly. His epigrams, whether long or short, are almost always set up for a matching final punch line.
Martial’s first book of epigrams was written to commemorate the opening of Rome’s Flavian Amphitheater, now called the Colosseum, in 80 c.e., although his state praise is anything but slavish. His subjects range across every type of social compass Rome contained. For example, the opening epigram from book 1, on public entertainment and the reactions of critics, states “The play you knew was of a risqué type/ nothing that a prude or saint could hype,/ so why come at all, your ringside seat receive/ if this quickly you would frown and leave?” Here, Martial suggests that if a critic could attend as a hypocrite and vent displeasure by abandoning the performance midway, it only made the critic look worse than the play he deliberately came to snub.
Another favorite topic of Martial’s sniping was the bungling professional who only made things worse, some of whom were charlatans or cheats, others merely incompetent. In the following epigram, also from book 1, he says “There was a doctor who also as mortician troubled,/ sending his patients to the underworld, fee doubled.”
As a farmer in Spain and having rural property in Italy, Martial could also deliver a tough verdict on reaping profit from fickle nature, as this epigram from book 1 relates: “No end to rain will cause your vines to swell,/ Perhaps it is not wine but water you should sell.” Here a farmer’s pragmatism and rough logic over commercial loss make this epigram humorous.
Martial also usually took great pains to expose injustice in the Rome of his day, believing that there was invariably some form of social retribution, as described in the following epigram from book 2 on vice and cruelty: “You thought your crime was safely silenced, not a soul to tell,/ by cutting out your slave’s tongue, to everyone it magnified your hell.” Thus, the dirty deed done in private was inevitably all the more public by its monstrosity of maiming the witness.
Many of Martial’s epigrams are risque, written for shock value. They are about sexual foibles and posturing, and they make fun of gendered masquerades and peccadilloes, skewering Romans for their bawdy behavior. One lengthy epigram in book 3 is a good example of Martial’s sharpness about sex and infidelity:
Your wealth is known both far and wide,
Thus, a man who has everything, including a trophy wife, really has nothing worth having. Martial is reminding his readers of the old adage that money cannot buy love.
One of Martial’s favorite peeves is lost youth or pretended beauty, as in the following epigram from book 3:
When your face has gone to wrinkles
thinking your lovers will be fooled as
but your wrinkles would be better left alone,
now so caked, standing out all the more
Also as expected from one used to farming, Martial shows the irony in nature with an epigram from book 4 that is similar to others he composed: “Caught in a drop of amber was a bee/ who found his richer destiny,/ trading sap for honey he put on eternity.” Trading on literary similitude, a device used by many, including his literary friend Quintilian, the consonance of honey and amber together makes a great image.
Martial also scorned misinterpreted popularity, as in this epigram from book 6: “You think at your banquet it is you they applaud,/ but they praise your generous table, otherwise, you’re a clod.” Martial also loved to poke fun at physical oddities, and while not necessarily cruel, he must have drawn a laugh from even the objects of his attention, as in this epigram from book 7: “This man had the fastest ever growing beard/ where first cheek regrew soon as the second was sheared.”
Making fun of his contemporaries who could not age gracefully, Martial targets someone easily recognizable for vanity throughout all history in this epigram from book 12: “Your teeth and hair you falsify,/ unfortunate you could not find an eye.” Ever the judge, Martial complains about poor value for money in this epigram about wine in book 13, a collection associated with the Roman festival of Saturnalia: “Better money on cheap wines with great taste/ than on snobby vintages without gusto waste.”
While a bulk of Martial’s epigrams are about sex, promiscuity, and mores, as in this epigram from book 14, also associated with Saturnalia, he values circumspection where even furniture can be voyeurs yet not betrayers of secrets: “Regardless how many lovers in my bed noisily camp/ observant but quiet you remain, my bedroom lamp.” Thus, Martial’s scope from folly to every possible vice in human behavior is peerless in his needling jabs. However, he also could be equally tender, as when lamenting a servant girl’s early death in this longer epigram from book 5:
My parents in the Underworld, take care
Martial’s enormous influence in writing epigrams has had a lasting legacy in literature, with imitators and admirers all through the ages that include William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Samuel Butler, Mark Twain, and Oscar Wilde. That Rome felt the goad of his sharp wit and still preserved most of his epigrams is a sign of his genius. It was a surety that even his high-placed enemies or those lampooned by his barbs in patrician circles often learned, at their own expense, to laugh at themselves, thanks to Martial.
Bibliography
Fitzgerald, William. Martial: The World of the Epigram. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Argues that Martial is a major author who deserves attention from today’s readers and critics. Provides an insightful tour of Martial’s works. Includes a helpful bibliography.
Hunt, Patrick, ed. and trans. Selected Martial Epigrams. San Francisco: Peirene Press, 2010. This collection of selected Martial epigrams consists of loose verse translations. Includes editor commentary.
Shackleton Bailey, D. R., ed. and trans. Martial: Epigrams. Loeb Classical Library 480. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993. This translation is intended primarily for academic readers. While its accuracy is impeccable and magisterial, it can lack immediacy and pungency of wit at times.
Spisak, Art L. Martial: A Social Guide. London: Gerald Duckworth, 2007. In this brief work, Spisak argues that Martial, “through his poetry, played a serious and vital role in his community as a social guide or conscience.”
Wills, Garry, ed. and trans. Martial’s “Epigrams”: A Selection. New York: Viking/Penguin, 2008. Although only a selection of Martial, this collection is rendered in verse like its original and is framed in language both accessible and picaresque with racy word choices.