SOURCE: "Lascivia vs. Ira: Martial and Juvenal" in Essays on Roman Satire, Princeton University Press, 1982, pp. 362-95.

In the essay below, Anderson contrasts the function of wit in Martial and Juvenal by an extended comparison of their poetry, particularly Martial's epigram 3.52 and Juvenal's third satire. He calls attention to significant differences in tone and purpose—even when the basic material is the same—and distinguishes between Martial's primary interest in humor and Juvenal's subordination of wit to serious thematic issues.

Sandwiched between two lighthearted epigrams on the dubious physical attractions of a Galla and a Chloe, there appear in Martial's Third Book the following four elegiac lines:

empta domus fuerat tibi, Tongiliane, ducentis:
   abstulit hanc nimium casus in urbe frequens.
 conlatum est deciens. rogo, non potes ipse
   videri
   incendisse tuam, Tongiliane, domum?
(3.52)

Martial has so contrived his development that each line begins with a crucial verb, each marking...