Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in
English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from
Hispania
Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: His ...
(modern
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
) best known for his twelve books of ''
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
s'', published in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the
emperors
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (em ...
Domitian
Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...
,
Nerva and
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presid ...
. In these short, witty poems he cheerfully
satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561 epigrams, of which 1,235 are in
elegiac couplets.
Martial has been called the greatest Latin epigrammatist, and is considered the creator of the modern
epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
.
Early life
Knowledge of his origins and early life are derived almost entirely from his works, which can be more or less dated according to the well-known events to which they refer. In Book X of his ''Epigrams'', composed between 95 and 98, he mentions celebrating his fifty-seventh birthday; hence he was born during March 38, 39, 40 or 41 AD (x. 24, 1),
under
Caligula or
Claudius. His place of birth was
Augusta Bilbilis (now
Calatayud) in
Hispania Tarraconensis
Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the northern, eastern and central territories of modern Spain along with modern northern Portugal. Southern Spain, the region now called Andalusia was the ...
. His parents, Fronto and Flaccilla, appear to have died in his youth.
His name seems to imply that he was born a Roman citizen, but he speaks of himself as "sprung from the
Celts
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...
and
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula
A peninsula (; ) is a la ...
ns, and a countryman of the
Tagus
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to ...
"; and, in contrasting his own masculine appearance with that of an effeminate Greek, he draws particular attention to "his stiff
Hispania
Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: His ...
n hair" (x. 65, 7).
His home was evidently one of rude comfort and plenty, sufficiently in the country to afford him the amusements of
hunting
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/ tusks, horn/ a ...
and
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques ...
, which he often recalls with keen pleasure, and sufficiently near the town to afford him the companionship of many comrades, the few survivors of whom he looks forward to meeting again after his thirty-four years' absence (x. 104). The memories of this old home, and of other spots, the rough names and local associations which he delights to introduce into his verse, attest to the simple pleasures of his early life and were among the influences which kept his spirit alive in the stultifying routines of upper-crust social life in Rome.
He was educated in Hispania, a part of the Roman Empire which in the 1st century produced several notable Latin writers, including
Seneca the Elder
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder (; c. 54 BC – c. 39 AD), also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rhe ...
and
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
Seneca was ...
,
Lucan and
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintili ...
, and Martial's contemporaries
Licinianus
Julius Valens Licinianus, known as Licinian, was a Roman usurper in 250. Apparently, Licinian, who was a senator, had the support of the Roman Senate and parts of the population when he initiated an uprising against Decius, who was fighting the G ...
of Bilbilis, Decianus of
Emerita and
Canius of Gades. Martial professes to be of the school of
Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical h ...
,
Pedo, and
Marsus. The epigram bears to this day the form impressed upon it by his unrivalled skill in wordsmithing.
Life in Rome
The success of his countrymen may have been what motivated Martial to move to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, from Hispania, once he had completed his education. This move occurred in AD 64.
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
Seneca was ...
and
Lucan may have served as his first patrons, but this is not known for sure.
Not much is known of the details of his life for the first twenty years or so after he came to Rome. He published some juvenile poems of which he thought very little in his later years, and he chuckles at a foolish bookseller who would not allow them to die a natural deat
(I. 113) His faculty ripened with experience and with the knowledge of that social life which was both his theme and his inspiration; many of his best epigrams are among those written in his last years. From many answers which he makes to the remonstrances of friends—among others to those of
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintili ...
—it may be inferred that he was urged to practice at the bar, but that he preferred his own lazy, some would say
Bohemian kind of life. He made many influential friends and patrons and secured the favor of both
Titus and
Domitian
Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...
. From them he obtained various privileges, among others the ''semestris tribunatus'', which conferred on him
equestrian rank. Martial failed, however, in his application to Domitian for more substantial advantages, although he commemorates the glory of having been invited to dinner by him, and also the fact that he procured the privilege of citizenship for many persons on whose behalf he appealed to him.
The earliest of his extant works, known as ''Liber spectaculorum'', was first published at the
opening of the
Colosseum in the reign of Titus. It relates to the theatrical performances given by him, but the book as it now stands was published about the first year of Domitian, i.e. about the year 81. The favour of the emperor procured him the countenance of some of the worst creatures at the imperial court—among them of the notorious Crispinus, and probably of Paris, the supposed author of
Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's lif ...
's exile, for whose monument Martial afterwards wrote a eulogistic epitaph. The two books, numbered by editors XIII and XIV, known by the names of ''Xenia'' and ''Apophoreta''—inscriptions in two lines each for presents—were published at the
Saturnalia of 84. In 86 he produced the first two of the twelve books on which his reputation rests.
From that time till his return to Hispania in 98 he published a volume almost every year. The first nine books and the first edition of Book X appeared in the reign of Domitian; Book XI. appeared at the end of 96, shortly after the accession of
Nerva. A revised edition of book X, that which we now possess, appeared in 98, about the time of
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presid ...
's entrance into Rome. The last book was written after three years' absence in Hispania, shortly before his death about the year 102 or 103.
These twelve books bring Martial's ordinary mode of life between the age of forty-five and sixty before us. His regular home for thirty-five years was the bustle of metropolitan Rome. He lived at first up three flights of stairs, and his "garret" overlooked the laurels in front of the portico of
Agrippa Agrippa may refer to:
People Antiquity
* Agrippa (mythology), semi-mythological king of Alba Longa
* Agrippa (astronomer), Greek astronomer from the late 1st century
* Agrippa the Skeptic, Skeptic philosopher at the end of the 1st century
* Agr ...
. He had a small villa and unproductive farm near
Nomentum, in the
Sabine territory, to which he occasionally retired from the pestilence, boors and noises of the city (ii. 38, xii. 57). In his later years he had also a small house on the
Quirinal, near the temple of
Quirinus
In Roman mythology and religion, Quirinus ( , ) is an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, ''Quirinus'' was also an epithet of Janus, as ''Janus Quirinus''.
Name
Attestations
The name of god Quirinus is recorded across Roman sou ...
.
At the time when his third book was brought out he had retired for a short time to
Cisalpine Gaul
Cisalpine Gaul ( la, Gallia Cisalpina, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the part of Italy inhabited by Celts ( Gauls) during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.
After its conquest by the Roman Republic in the 200s BC it was ...
, in weariness, as he tells us, of his unprofitable attendance on the bigwigs of Rome. For a time he seems to have felt the charm of the new scenes which he visited, and in a later book (iv. 25) he contemplates the prospect of retiring to the neighbourhood of
Aquileia
Aquileia / / / / ;Bilingual name of ''Aquileja – Oglej'' in: vec, Aquiłeja / ; Slovenian: ''Oglej''), group=pron is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river ...
and the
Timavus
The Timavo River, known in Slovene as the ' or ', is a two-kilometre stream in the Province of Trieste. It has four sources near San Giovanni ( sl, Štivan) near Duino ( sl, Devin) and outflows in the Gulf of Panzano (part of the Gulf of Trie ...
. But the spell exercised over him by Rome and Roman society was too great; even the epigrams sent from Forum Corneli and the
Aemilian Way
The ( it, Via Emilia; en, Aemilian Way) was a trunk Roman road in the north Italian plain, running from ''Ariminum'' (Rimini), on the Adriatic coast, to ''Placentia'' (Piacenza) on the river ''Padus'' ( Po). It was completed in 187 BC. The ' ...
ring much more of the Roman forum, and of the streets, baths, porticos, brothels, market stalls, public houses, and clubs of Rome, than of the places from which they are dated.
His final departure from Rome was motivated by a weariness of the burdens imposed on him by his social position, and apparently the difficulties of meeting the ordinary expenses of living in the metropolis (x. 96); and he looks forward to a return to the scenes familiar to his youth. The well-known epigram addressed to Juvenal (xii. I 8) shows that for a time his ideal was happily realized; but the evidence of the prose epistle prefixed to Book XII proves and that he could not live happily away from the literary and social pleasures of Rome for long. The one consolation of his exile was a lady, Marcella, of whom he writes rather platonically as if she were his patroness—and it seems to have been a necessity of his life to always have a patron or patroness—rather than his wife or mistress.
During his life at Rome, although he never rose to a position of real independence, he seems to have known many writers of the time. In addition to
Lucan and
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintili ...
, he numbered among his friends
Silius Italicus,
Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's lif ...
and
Pliny the Younger. Despite the two authors writing at the same time and having common friends, Martial and
Statius
Publius Papinius Statius (Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; ; ) was a Greco-Roman poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving Latin poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the '' Thebaid''; a collection of occasional poetr ...
are largely silent about one another, which may be explained by mutual dislike. Martial in many places shows an undisguised contempt for the artificial kind of epic on which Statius's reputation chiefly rests; and it is possible that the respectable author of the ''Thebaid'' and the ''Silvae'' felt little admiration for the life or the works of the bohemian epigrammatist.
Martial and his patrons
Martial was dependent on his wealthy friends and patrons for gifts of money, for his dinner, and even for his dress, but the
relation of client to patron had been recognized as an honourable one by the best Roman traditions. No blame had attached to
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
or
Horace on account of the favours which they received from
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
and
Maecenas, or of the return which they made for these favours in their verse. That old honourable relationship, however, greatly changed between Augustus and Domitian. Men of good birth and education, and sometimes even of high official position (Juv. i. 117), accepted the dole (''sportula''). Martial was merely following a general fashion in paying his court to "a lord," and he made the best of the custom. In his earlier career he used to accompany his patrons to their villas at
Baiae
Baiae ( it, Baia; nap, Baia) was an ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples and now in the ''comune'' of Bacoli. It was a fashionable resort for centuries in antiquity, particularly towards the end of the Roman ...
or
Tibur, and to attend their morning levees. Later on, he went to his own small country house, near Nomentum, and sent a poem, or a small volume of his poems, as his representative at the early visit.
Martial's character
Pliny the Younger, in the short tribute which he pays to him on hearing of his death, wrote, "He had as much good-nature as wit and pungency in his writings". Martial professes to avoid personalities in his satire, and honour and sincerity (''fides'' and ''simplicitas'') seem to have been the qualities which he most admires in his friends. Some have found distasteful his apparent servile flattery to the worst of the many bad emperors of Rome in the 1st century. These were emperors Martial would later censure immediately after their death (xii. 6). However, he seems to have disliked
hypocrisy in its many forms, and seems to be free from
cant,
pedantry, or affectation of any kind.
Though many of his epigrams indicate a cynical disbelief in the character of women, yet others prove that he could respect and almost revere a refined and courteous lady. His own life in Rome afforded him no experience of domestic virtue; but his epigrams show that, even in the age which is known to modern readers chiefly from the ''Satires'' of
Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's lif ...
, virtue was recognized as the purest source of happiness. The tenderest element in Martial's nature seems, however, to have been his affection for children and for his dependents.
Martial's ''Epigrams''
Martial's keen curiosity and power of observation are manifested in his epigrams. The enduring literary interest of Martial's epigrams arises as much from their literary quality as from the colorful references to human life that they contain. Martial's epigrams bring to life the spectacle and brutality of daily life in imperial Rome, with which he was intimately connected.
From Martial, for example, we have a glimpse of living conditions in the city of Rome:
As Jo-Ann Shelton has written, "fire was a constant threat in ancient cities because wood was a common building material and people often used open fires and
oil lamps. However, some people may have
deliberately set fire to their property in order to collect insurance money." Martial makes this accusation in one of his epigrams:
Martial also pours scorn on the doctors of his day:
Martial's epigrams also refer to the extreme cruelty shown to slaves in Roman society. Below, he chides a man named Rufus for flogging his cook for a minor mistake:
Martial's epigrams are also characterized by their biting and often scathing sense of wit as well as for their lewdness; this has earned him a place in literary history as the original
insult comic
Insult comedy is a comedy genre in which the act consists mainly of offensive insults usually directed at the audience or other performers. Typical targets for insult include people in the show's audience, the town hosting the performance, or the s ...
. Below is a sample of his more insulting work:
Or the following two examples (in translations by Mark Ynys-Mon):
Along with
Roman graffiti, the Epigrams are important sources for
Latin obscene words.
Reception
The works of Martial became highly valued on their discovery by the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...
, whose writers often saw them as sharing an eye for the urban vices of their own times. The poet's influence is seen in
Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's lif ...
, late classical literature, the
Carolingian revival, the Renaissance in France and Italy, the
Siglo de Oro, and early modern English and German poetry, until he became unfashionable with the growth of the
Romantic movement.
The 21st century has seen a resurgence of scholarly attention to Martial's work.
Notes
References
* Coleman, Kathleen M. (2006). "The Identity of Caesar." In ''M. Valerii Martialis Liber Spectaculorum''. Edited by Kathleen Coleman, xlv–lxiv. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
* Fagan, Garrett G. (1999). "A Visit to the Baths with Martial" In ''Bathing in Public in the Roman World''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
* Fitzgerald, William. (2007). ''Martial: The World of the Epigram''. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
* Howell, Peter. (2009). ''Martial. Ancients in Action''. London: Bristol Classical Press.
* Leary, Timothy John. (2012). "Modifying Martial in Nineteenth-Century Britain." In ''Expurgating the Classics: Editing Out in Greek and Latin''. Edited by Stephen Harrison and Christopher Stray. London: Bristol Classical Press.
* Nisbet, Gideon. (2003). ''Greek Epigram in the Roman Empire: Martial's Forgotten Rivals''. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
* Rimell, Victoria. (2008). ''Martial's Rome: Empire and the Ideology of Epigram''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
* Sapsford, Francesca May (2012)
''The 'Epic' of Martial'' University of Birmingham PhD thesis.
* Stanley, Farland. (2014). "Observations on Martial's Imagery of Provincial Spain." ''Glotta'', 90, 192–215.
* Sullivan, John P. (2004). ''Martial: The Unexpected Classic: A Literary and Historical Study''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
* Sullivan, John P. (1989). "Martial's "Witty Conceits": Some Technical Observations." ''Illinois Classical Studies'' 14.1/2: 185–199.
External links
Works
Works by Martial at Perseus Digital Library(in Latin) at The Latin Library.
(in English, 1897 edition) at The Tertullian Project—actually incomplete: scatological and sexually explicit material is left untranslated.
Martial Blogtranslations from much of the first three books of ''Epigrams''
translated by A. S. Kline
Selected ''Epigrams''translated by Elizabeth Duke
* Selected ''Epigrams'' in translation a
Theatre of Pompey* Some of Martial's mor
risqué ''Epigrams''translated by Joseph S Salemi
by Franklin P Adams
Translations in Simplified Chinese Characters
Other links
Poems by Martialat PoemHunter.com
Martial Quotationsat The Quotations Page
*
ttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/22360 Court Poet & Pornographer Glen Bowersock on Martial from ''
The New York Review of Books''
* *
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martial
1st-century births
100s deaths
1st-century Romans
2nd-century Romans
1st-century writers
2nd-century writers
Roman-era satirists
Silver Age Latin writers
Romans from Hispania
Epigrammatists
People from Calatayud
Valerii
Ancient LGBT people