Biography Essay

On learning of the recent death of Marcus Valerius Martialis in about A.D. 103, the younger Pliny wrote (Epistles 3.21),

I hear that Valerius Martial is dead and I am very distressed. He was a man of remarkable talent; he had a perceptive and sharp mind; and his writings are no less exceptional for their charm as for their wit and sarcasm. . . . He gave me as much as he could and would have given me more if he had been able to do so. Surely, however, nothing greater can be conferred upon a man than a tribute that will bring him fame, praise, and immortality? But the poems he wrote will not be immortal. Perhaps they will not be, but he wrote them with the intention that they would be read by future generations.

Pliny confirms that Martial, no less than other ancient poets, aspired to achieve...