Martial Summary

Martial (ca. 38-ca. 104), whose full name was Marcus Valerius Martialis, was a Roman epigrammatist. The development of the epigram as we know it was largely due to Martial's influence. His works give ... Read more

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 r... Read more

In this letter to his friend Cornelius Priscus, written around 104, Pliny eulogizes Martial, commending the poet's wit, incisiveness, and good nature. He also describes their patron-client rela... Read more

In the essay below, Spaeth surveys Martial's depiction of men whose occupations he either scorned as contemptible or envied because they were lucrative—cobblers and booksellers, moneylen... Read more

In this essay, Duff stresses—and commends—Martial's realism, which he regards as the primary impulse behind the poet's variety of tone, perspective, and subject matter. Duf... Read more

In this essay, originally delivered as a lecture in 1952, Johnson examines Martial's epigrams on death and dying. He calls attention to the poet's use of conventional tropes—espec... Read more

In the following essay, Allen and a group of his students challenge the image of Martial as a desperately poor poet who regarded his verses as ephemeral or insignificant. Citing a variety of evidence ... Read more

In this essay, Chaney briefly surveys Martial's depiction of women—both those he admires and those whose features, vanity, or lack of virtue he disparages. Martial frequently writes o... Read more

In the following excerpt, Plass evaluates Martial's obscene epigrams in terms of Freud's commentary on the function and effectiveness of wit. Plass calls attention to the way Martial man... Read more

In the essay below, Malnati remarks on the different attitudes toward social mobility expressed by Martial (in eight epigrams from Book 5) and by Juvenal (in a passage from the third satire). He conte... Read more

In the essay that follows, Garthwaite focuses on Book 9, discerning a subtle thematic relationship between the epigrams praising the emperor Domitian, the verses dedicated to the young slave Earinus, ... Read more

The poem below, believed to have been written in 1821, is Byron's famous imitation of Martial 1.1, on the poet's fame. He, unto whom thou art so partial, Oh, reader! is the well-known... Read more

In the following excerpt from an essay first published in 1900, Boissier focuses on Martial's incisive portraits of character types in the fashionable society of his day and on the poet'... Read more

In the following excerpt, Smith offers a vigorous response to Martial's detractors, particularly those who have charged him with obsequiousness toward patrons. Smith stresses the tradition of t... Read more

In the following excerpt, Whipple discusses Martial's principal themes and classifies the epigrams by their content. He also provides a detailed analysis of their structure, emphasizing the poe... Read more