Martial (040–104)

Through his Epigrams, Martial has come down to us as a Roman rap star, an Empire gangsta who tweaked the noses of all around him — unless you were pretty and had sexy naughty bits, in which case the odds were even as to whether he’d sing your praises or declare you a whore.

Born in Spain in the year 40 A.D., Martial was a poet who lived much of his life in Rome, dying just after the turn of the first century. His mastery of raunchy innuendo (not to mention outright declaration of show more skankiness) may well be unsurpassed in the history of literature. He’s certainly in the ninetieth percentile.

Fortunately, Wills doesn’t attempt anything so anachronistic as presenting Martial as a rapper, but his translation of these selected epigrams is lucid and juicy, tender and lyrical – they pop as the occasion requires. For Martial wasn’t all raunch and roll. He once, for instance, wrote a poem about a dead slave girl,

six days shy
Of six years…
Earth, sadly mounted on this gravesite now,
Press lightly on her, as she did on you.

In the next paragraph, though, Wills must inform us that “the only tender love poems are pederastic, like this”: “Your hint of beard just barely is… a fizz …. / And when you give me kisses free, / Your shadow beard dusts off on me.”

In our time, I expect Martial would, under the best of circumstances, be a poet chained to a post, with a ten-foot-radius of freedom, a registered sex offender in some Midwestern village bazaar. We could bring him bread and wine, feel good about our kindness to a monster. Martial is shockingly useful—I mean to say, he’s useful precisely because he can shock us after two millennia. We think we’ve got problems with popular culture? These neglected Roman writers can be helpful reminders of the boom box of history.

Martial brings into public discourse what for us are mostly private matters, and that so even with “reality TV” and Google’s impending artificial intelligence conspiracy. Of a female acquaintance he asks, “Your face entices, and your thighs – / Why are you shunned by all the guys?” This is grudge rap, bitch slapping, the trading of street-corner dozens (“yo mamma fatter than…”) and just generally upping the animosity ante: l’art pour l’art, and the art of insult has always been pretty cool. It’s not tender and loving, but it may be nonetheless healthy.

Along with standup comics, skanky bitches from across the gender and political spectrum will admire Martial (and Wills’ translations) for his audacity and originality. Only the sick and twisted, however, will admire (much less study and emulate) the skill with which Martial cuts throats with mere words. For that would be bad.

Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book. show less

In which I realize that my boredom with and occasional distaste for the classics is due to my own silly post-romantic desire for The Great Work rather than for the good one. Martial is hilarious, the translation adds in rhyme to give us some flavor and make the sting in the tail a little more obvious. Even better, it's dual-language. The later books are a little dull, and almost ruined by genuine, heartfelt sentiment and mourning, as well as, I feel, a general weakening of Martial's sneer. show more Is this Great Literature? No, thank god. Is it better than trawling through endless pages of bowel-churning love poetry? Substantially. Avoid, however, if you're distressed by performed bigotry. show less

This is a book I found in a used book store years ago. It tickled my curiosity and has been sitting on my shelves gathering dust. There were a lot of giggles in this book and a few groans. The giggles are for Martial's wit, the groans are for his over the top obscenity. The editor of this book made a point of putting in a lot of poetry of Martial that had not been printed before for that very reason. Martial was the master of the epigram; concise, precise and insightful. It just so happens show more that as Freud proved sex is a big part of human behavior and Martial didn't leave anything out. In his own words;

Not all my poems are meant
for cocktail parties-----
a few are fit for morning tea.

Still he does have a way of getting right to the point in a few words and his style of epigrams set the tone for many writers. The editor mentions quite a few poets that followed Martial's style and has a quote from Byron who paying his respects to the Roman poet.

And then what proper person can be partial
to all those nauseous epigrams of Martial

Don Juan Canto I
stanza xliii, 11. 343-44

Considering that he was writing in 100 c.e. Martial's comments seem very timely. The editor put it nicely in saying," When we look at the nature of man, strip man down to his bare self, today's man versus yesterday's, we find that progress amounts to little more than toilet paper, tin cans and atom bombs." Except for the Latin name the following could easily have been written by Dorothy Parker.

Saenia swore that she
was robbed of her virtue.
So how can a girl be robbed
of what she hasn't got?

There don't seem to be a lot of copies around but I am glad I have this book on my shelf for those moments when I want a laugh or a reason not to take life so seriously. show less

Recall that Don Juan's mother referred to them as "the nauseous epigrams of Martial," in Byron. She's probably thinking in particular of Book XI. They are a delight, a crude, base, insulting, very funny satire on different sexual crimes and misdemeanors. The only English verse that comes close is JV Cunningham, such as: "Lip is a man who used his head, / He used it when he went to bed / With his friend's wife..." and it gets better, "With either sex at either end."
M. Valerius Martialis, born show more in Bilbilis, Hispania (near Zaragoza) published his first book of epigrams the same year the Colisseum was completed, 80 A.D (at age 40). He advises readers who hold the book can pick one up at Secunda's stall in the Forum of Pallas, back of the Gate of Peace. He considers the losing soldier's fame cheap, just falling on his sword: "I'd prefer to be famous still alive." And he's ascerbic on the man who proposes to a rich woman: Why does he propose? She has a bad cough...(so she'll die and leave him her dowry).
One Lupercus asks to borrow his epigrams; Martial directs him to his bookseller, because he's closer. He parodies Catullus, who calls his girl Lesbea a "pet, a sparrow"--Martial calls his Stella a dove (maybe renowned for screwing). Martial also has many epigrams about his book, "Go--if you must, you'd be safer at home."
But some epigrams are longer than our idea of the form. I believe late 16C writers debated whether the sonnet was a lyric or an epigram.
But some epigrams are longer than our idea of the form. I believe late 16C writers debated whether the sonnet was a lyric or an epigram. The one great poet in English who writes epigrams is Emily Dickinson, but her epigrams are entirely uninfluenced by Martial. ED, "What soft, cherubic creatures / These gentlewomen are--/ One would as soon assault a Plush, / Or violate--a Star./ Such Dimity convictions, / A horror so refined / Of Freckled human Nature--/ Of Deity--Ashamed." show less