Martial Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Bruce W. Swann

Critical Essay by Bruce W. Swann

SOURCE: "Martial's Catullus" in Martial's Catullus, Heorg Olms Verlag, 1994, pp. 33-46.

In the following excerpt, Swann calls attention to Martial's numerous references to Catullus, especially those allusions in which the younger poet names Catullus as his chief literary model.

Gi; naming Catullus =~ Snaming Catullus

… Martial names a 'Catullus' at least twenty-five times and, though there is doubt in five cases as to which 'Catullus' Martial meant, in twenty of the cases it is clear.⁵ Six times the association is with Lesbia (6.34.7; 7.14.3; 8.73.8; 12.44.5, 59.3; 14.77.1); five times it is with the word passer (twice at 1.7.3-4; 1.109.1; 4.14.13; 11.6.16); and twice it is with Verona (10.103.5; 14.195.1). Three times Martial links Catullus with the epithet doctus (7.99.7; 14.100.1, 152.1), three times with Marsus (pref. 1; 2.71.3; 5.5.6), and once Martial simply compares himself to Catullus (10.78.16).⁶ In these passages Martial consistently treats Catullus as a Roman poet, some of whose works...
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