1.1. By the time Martial published book 1 of his epigrams (around 86 CE), he was already well known for his three previous collections: De Spectaculis (about the shows at the Colosseum), Xenia (mottos to accompany gifts of food or wine), and Apophoreta (mottos to accompany presents for the Saturnalia) (Shackleton Bailey 1:2–3).
1.9. Bellus, which could mean “handsome, nice, pleasant,” was usually used ironically by Martial (Howell, Commentary 128).
1.10. Martial suggests that Maronilla is rich and consumptive.
1.13. Pliny, in his Epistles 3.16, recounts Arria’s suicide after her husband Caecina Paetus was involved in a failed revolt against Emperor Claudius in 42 CE. She stabbed herself and handed the sword to him, saying, “Paete, non dolet” (Paetus, it doesn’t hurt) (cited in Howell, Commentary 136–37). The rest of the quote in Martial’s epigram is his own invention (Howell, Commentary 137).
1.16. The addressee of this poem is Avitus, usually assumed to be L. Stertinius Avitus (Howell, Commentary 144), who was consul in 92 CE and is mentioned in Martial’s preface to book 9 as wanting to place a bust of Martial in his library (Shackleton Bailey 2:233).
1.17. This epigram is one of several in which Martial implies that he is being advised to practice law as a way to earn more money. His answer, that a field is splendid if it is tended by a farmer, is his self-deprecatory way of implying that he would not know how to do law, when really it didn’t appeal to him.
1.19. Martial frequently alludes to people who have lost their teeth, some of whom buy false teeth to hide the loss. Aelia is presumably old, so this also is one of Martial’s many poems making fun of old women for being unattractive.
1.20. Emperor Claudius reportedly died after eating mushrooms poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Boletus mushrooms were an expensive delicacy, so for the host to eat the entire serving in front of his guests would be rude (Howell, Commentary 151).
1.23. Martial suggests that Cotta is looking for attractive sexual partners, not just dining companions, at the baths.
1.24. Decianus, the addressee of this epigram, was a friend of Martial’s from Spain (Shackleton Bailey 3:351). M. Curius Dentatus and M. Furius Camillus were heroes of the early Roman Republic, the former ending the Samnite Wars and the latter fighting off an invasion of Gauls (Howell, Commentary 159–60). Martial is here satirizing a man whose show of stern virtue and disregard for his appearance is meant to conceal the fact that he allows himself to be sodomized (Shackleton Bailey 1:58n), behavior that was considered shameful and unmanly.
1.27. The Greek proverb quoted means “I hate a fellow-drinker who remembers things” (Howell, Commentary 43).
1.28. Because acerra means “incense-casket,” the name Acerra suits a person who reeks (Howell, Commentary 167).
1.29. Fidentinus, whose name (from the word fidens, meaning “bold”) suggests shamelessness (Howell, Commentary 168), is advised to pay Martial off if he doesn’t wish to be exposed as a plagiarist.
1.30. The joke here is that since Diaulus killed his patients, he is better qualified to be a mortician. Jokes about deadly doctors are common in Martial.
1.32. Although it is possible that Martial is just pretending not to know the reason for his dislike (so as not to name a shocking cause), it seems more likely that the poem is concerned with instinctive aversion for which there is no obvious cause.
1.33. Women were expected to mourn demonstratively for their dead relations. Gellia is exposed as a hypocrite because she weeps only in public.
1.34. As Howell points out, the name Lesbia is clearly borrowed from Catullus and is usually used in erotic contexts by Martial. Summemmi could refer to a brothel owner, the name of a brothel, or its location. Chione is a name Martial often uses for a prostitute, and he here implies that the lowest order of whores service their customers in tombs (Howell, Commentary 179–81).
1.37. The ridiculous luxury of using a golden chamber pot is emphasized by saving the obscenity cacas (you shit) for the end of the epigram.
1.38. Fidentinus, the plagiarist of 1.29, reappears in this epigram, in which he has garbled Martial’s poems so badly in reciting them that Martial denies any part in them.
1.40. Martial’s 1.39 had lavishly praised his friend Decianus. Martial imagines his reader reacting negatively to that praise.
1.46. Shackleton Bailey changes the gender of the name from Hedyle (a masculine name) in the manuscripts to Hedyli (a feminine name), arguing that catamites were generally boy slaves and wouldn’t “claim urgent business elsewhere” (1:73n). But prostitutes could be male or female, so the masculine name can fit the context.
1.47. The doctor of 1.30 reappears here, and the joke is similar.
1.54. The Fuscus addressed here may be the rich lawyer of that name whom Martial addresses in 7.28 (Howell, Commentary 235).
1.57. Flaccus, the addressee of this poem, appears to have been a close friend of Martial’s and is addressed twenty-one times in his epigrams (Howell, Commentary 242).
1.58. Phoebus may have earned his money by marrying a wealthy wife, though payment for other sexual activity is not ruled out.
1.59. The dole (sportula) was the amount patrons gave to their clients in lieu of a small basket of food; the amount (one hundred quadrantes, or about twenty-five sesterces) would not have gone far in a luxury resort such as Baiae (Shackleton Bailey 1:85n). Located in the volcanic region near Naples, Baiae had hot springs of sulfurous water that was reputed to be curative (Howell, Commentary 245). The baths of Lupus and Gryllus were presumably a small, ill-lit private establishment in Rome (247).
1.62. The fashionable resort of Baiae, known for its luxurious baths, sulfur-laden waters, and nearby lakes, was also famous for the sybaritic and loose behavior of the Romans who visited it (Howell, Commentary 245–46). Martial often refers to Sabine women as stern exemplars of morality. In Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope was the epitome of what a faithful wife should be, whereas Helen started the Trojan war by abandoning her husband Menelaus to run off with handsome young Paris.
1.63. The name Celer, which means “hasty,” may have been chosen to suggest the impatience of the addressee to read his own verse.
1.64. By praising herself, Fabulla makes her other assets less attractive.
1.71. The number of drafts swallowed is equal to the number of letters in the name of each girl. Each draft (cyathus in Latin) is about a twelfth of a pint (Shackleton Bailey 1:95n), so he has consumed about a quart of Falernian (a highquality wine) by the end of the poem and is ready to sleep. Romans often drank to the health of their beloved (Howell, Commentary 272), but the number of girls mentioned and the fact that none will come to the speaker is meant to be funny. Martial regularly jokes about being turned down by prostitutes.
1.72. Fidentinus is again mentioned as a plagiarist (as in 1.29 and 1.38). He is compared to an old woman who buys false teeth carved of ivory or bone, and to a dark-skinned woman who uses powdered white lead to look fairer. Martial implies that in the future Fidentinus will buy a wig once he becomes bald.
1.73. The implied irony is that the wife of Caecilianus is not very goodlooking, but that his jealous protection of her backfires because it is taken as a challenge by the local seducers.
1.74. Martial implies that by marrying the man with whom she formerly committed adultery, Paula confirms the affair that she previously could deny.
1.77. The pallor of Charinus is presented as a mystery, since each of the possible causes (disease, heavy drinking, bad digestion, little sun) is ruled out. It is even implied that he is trying to conceal the pallor by getting a tan and using rouge. But the last line provides the solution to the riddle. Romans believed that performing cunnilingus was not only shameful but caused an unhealthy pallor, so the “and yet” of the last line is ironic (Howell, Commentary 280–81).
1.83. Martial suggests that licking Manneia’s mouth is as bad as eating shit because she performs oral sex (Howell, Commentary 287). Martial regularly implies that oral sex makes the mouth of the one who performs it smelly or unclean.
1.84. Pater familiae means “head (literally, father) of the household,” but familia could also mean the slaves of the household, so the word is a pun (Shackleton Bailey 1:104n). Though the sons of a knight would normally be knights (equites) themselves, because they are born of slave mothers, they are vernae (home-born slaves) (Howell, Commentary 288).
1.89. Most people would speak praise of Caesar loudly in order to sound loyal, but Cinna is so accustomed to whispering that he can’t speak up even when it might do him good (Howell, Commentary 297).
1.90. Though Bassa seems to be chaste because she avoids men, she is revealed to be a lesbian with an outsized clitoris which enables her to imitate intercourse (Shackleton Bailey 1:109n). Lucretia was a chaste, noble Roman wife who committed suicide to salvage her honor after she was raped by Sextus Tarquinius. The Theban riddle mentioned is the one that the Sphinx asked Oedipus: “What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?” The answer is “Man, who crawls as a baby, walks upright when mature, and needs a cane when old.” Bassa represents an equally baffling paradox.
1.91. Martial tends to be satirical about critics of his verse who don’t publish their own, implying that their verse can’t be good if they are unwilling to have others see it.
1.94. Howell suggests that Aegle, a name Martial uses elsewhere for a prostitute, had a bad voice when she was young, because of her sexual activity, which Romans thought affected the voice. At the time, her beauty compensated for it. When she was no longer attractive, her voice improved, but she turned to fellatio as a specialty and therefore could not be kissed (Howell, Commentary 304–5).
1.95. Though lawyers might bring their clients to court or pay others to applaud their own speeches or to heckle their opponents, Aelius seems to be freelancing by interrupting lawyers in the hope of being paid to shut up (Howell, Commentary 305).
1.102. Martial implies that the painter deliberately made Venus look bad to flatter Minerva, who had lost to Venus in the beauty contest judged by Paris. The addressee of this poem is Lycoris. Howell points out that her Greek name suggests that she is a prostitute, whose association with the goddess Venus would be obvious (Howell, Commentary 317).
1.105. Howell states that the addressee, Quintus Ovidius, a friend and patron of Martial’s, owned a place near Martial’s Nomentan farm, and both would have produced wine from their own vineyards. Martial here jokes that if you keep Nomentan wine long enough, you can pass it off as a more illustrious vintage (Howell, Commentary 323–25).
1.106. Howell argues that, though it was customary to drink wine mixed with water, Rufus is apparently adding an excessive amount of water to a very small amount of wine. Martial jokes that Rufus must be staying sober to better enjoy a night of sex with Naevia. When Rufus sighs and refuses to answer, Martial concludes that Rufus has been refused (making his selfdenial even odder) and urges him to get drunk quickly by drinking unmixed wine, a practice generally frowned on as excessive (Howell, Commentary 325–27).
1.108. Martial’s home on the Quirinal hill overlooked the Campus of Vipsanius Agrippa to the west (Shackleton Bailey 1:123n). This poem is an apology for ducking the expected (and onerous) morning calls of a client at a patron’s house, though Martial expresses a willingness to show up for a meal later in the day. Meanwhile, he offers his book as a substitute for showing up in person in the mornings.
1.110. Velox, which means “speedy,” is a suitable name for a man who can’t stand long epigrams.
1.111. M. Aquilius Regulus was a lawyer and a patron of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:379). This poem would have accompanied a gift of this book and incense to his patron (1:127n).
1.112. Martial hoped that Priscus would become his patron, but has been disappointed (Shackleton Bailey 1:127n).
1.113. Under the cover of self-deprecating comments about his earlier poems and juvenilia, Martial advertises where they can be bought.
1.117. Shackleton Bailey notes that Ad Pirum (At the Pear Tree) is the name of the apartment building in which Martial lives; Argiletum is a street of shops near the Forum Julium; and five denarii is the equivalent of twenty sesterces (1:131n). The edges of a papyrus scroll would be smoothed by being rubbed with pumice, and the parchment case of a deluxe copy would be stained purple (Howell, Commentary 351). Martial repeatedly makes fun of people too cheap to buy his book, who prefer to borrow a copy or ask Martial to give them one for free (as in 4.72).
2.3. Martial observes that Sextus cannot be considered a debtor if he will never be able to pay off his loan.
2.4. The terms “sister” and “brother” were often used as terms of affection and could be used toward a girlfriend or boyfriend (Williams 35). Both the intimacy of the terms and their blurring of the generational gap suggest an over-eroticized and possibly incestuous relationship between mother and son.
2.5. Decianus was a friend of Martial’s from Emerita in Spain (Shackleton Bailey 3:351), and is also addressed in 1.24.Though Decianus appears to be a patron as well, the implied criticism of him for turning a friend away is offset by Martial’s stated eagerness to see his friend and willingness to go long distances to do so (Williams 37).
2.10. Romans often greeted friends or acquaintances with a kiss. Martial turns the tables on someone who kisses him in a perfunctory or condescending way by implying that the kisses aren’t wanted anyway. As is usual in Martial, to suggest that someone’s mouth is repellent implies that the person performs oral sex (Williams 55).
2.12. In this epigram, Martial implies that Postumus tries to use perfume to disguise the smelly mouth he gets from performing oral sex.
2.13. Martial jokes that it would be cheaper to pay off a debt than to go to court about the matter and have to pay a rapacious lawyer and bribe the judge.
2.15. It was customary to pass cups for a toast. The fact that Hormus won’t share his could be considered arrogant, but Martial suggests that Hormus is doing people a favor because his mouth is disgusting, presumably from performing oral sex (Williams 76).
2.17. Subura was an area of Rome known for prostitution; according to Shackleton Bailey, the fact that the woman is sitting suggests that she is a prostitute. The verb tondere means both “to clip” and “to rob,” and radere means “to shave” but can also have the meaning of “to fleece someone” (1:147n).
2.19. Martial is insulting the meager dinners that Zoilus provides to his guests. Williams notes that Aricia, sixteen miles outside of Rome on the Appian Way, was a place that beggars congregated. Roman diners reclined on couches while eating, but the beggars, of course, would be lying on the ground (90–91).
2.20. Martial is playing on the idea that once you buy something, you can call it yours. As Williams notes, there was no copyright on creative works, so plagiarism would have been easy (91). Martial defends his work by satirizing the plagiarists.
2.21. The addressee of this poem is Postumus (presumably the same one mentioned in 2.10 and 2.12). The implied point again is that Martial would prefer to avoid the kisses of a man who performs oral sex.
2.22. The apostrophe to Phoebus and the Muses uses inflated language for humorous effect. This poem alludes to 2.10 and implies that Martial’s fame from his poetry is what is bringing him unwanted attentions from Postumus.
2.23. Martial plays along with readers’ assumptions that the name Postumus is a pseudonym for a real person, but refuses to reveal his identity for fear of being kissed even more often in revenge.
2.25. Martial frequently uses logic to twist someone’s refusal of his request into an acceptance (Williams 102).
2.26. Bithynicus is wooing Naevia, who pretends to be consumptive in order to lead him on. She presumably has money, and he wants to marry her in the hope that she will die soon. Another possible explanation advanced by Williams is that he is being attentive to her in the hope of getting a legacy from her (104).
2.27. Selius earns his dinner by loudly praising the performance of his patron in court or at a poetry reading. It was common practice for advocates to bring their clients into the courtroom to provide vocal support for the patrons’ arguments, in the hope of swaying the decision.
2.28. Williams notes that the other two options that Martial hasn’t mentioned are that Sextillus performs fellatio or cunnilingus. What starts out looking like a defense of Sextillus turns into a riddle whose solution is even more shameful than the initial accusation. Giving someone the middle finger, then as now, was an aggressive sexual gesture, which turns the accusation back on the accuser (109–10).
2.30. Gaius, a rich friend of longstanding who increases his wealth by lending money, is asked to lend Martial an amount of money that Martial protests is small for someone like Gaius. Instead of lending the money, he tells Martial to earn more by becoming a lawyer (as Titus had advised Martial in 1.17). As in the earlier epigram, Martial has no interest in a career as an advocate.
2.31. Literally, Martial is saying “nothing can surpass it,” which wouldn’t be very funny if it just means that she is very good, so I am taking it to mean that she does all that is humanly possible.
2.33. Philaenis is apparently an old woman who is bald, red-faced, and one-eyed. At first Martial just seems to be making fun of her for being ugly, but the joke turns out to be that those characteristics are shared by a penis, and that kissing her would be the equivalent of performing fellatio (Williams 128–29).
2.38. Martial often refers to his farm in Nomentum, some twenty kilometers northeast of Rome (Williams 142). Though in other poems he complains that its yield is modest, in this one he puts down the nosy Linus by retorting that the farm at least provides an escape from him.
2.39. Roman law required prostitutes and convicted adulteresses to wear togas (Shackleton Bailey 1:161n). The adulteress in this poem is notorious, but not convicted.
2.42. Martial implies that the head of Zoilus is dirtier than his ass because he performs oral sex (Williams 155).
2.49. Telesina is an adulteress, so Martial at first rejects her as a potential wife. However, she has sex with boys. Williams points out that Roman tradition allowed a man who discovered his wife having sex with a boy to bugger the boy as punishment, so a wife who sleeps with boys would bring many opportunities for sex with boys. Martial is poking fun at himself by implying that he would be willing to tolerate adultery for that reason (176).
2.50. Martial implies that Lesbia’s habit of drinking water (instead of wine) is appropriate, since she performs fellatio and therefore needs to wash her mouth out. As usual, Martial presents oral sex as being unclean (Williams 177).
2.51. Hyllus is down to his last denarius, but would rather spend it on being sodomized than on eating. It was considered shameful for a man to be sodomized, and Hyllus is also being satirized for being poor, being sexually voracious, and having to pay to be sodomized (Williams 179).
2.52. Williams notes that Dasius, the owner or manager of the baths, charges three times the usual entrance fee to Spatale, making her pay separately for each of her breasts. The joke is aimed both at the enterprisingly venal Dasius and at Spatale, who by paying acknowledges that the charge is appropriate (181–83).
2.53. Though one might assume at first that Maximus is a slave, his drinking wine and using prostitutes shows that he is not; instead, he feels burdened by his duties as a client, which also provide him with luxuries he cannot otherwise afford. Williams notes that Martial repeatedly uses the wine of Veii as an example of bad wine drunk by the poor (185) and that two asses (bronze coins of low value) was a low price for an ordinary prostitute (185). Kings of Parthia, an enemy country in the region that now includes Iran (186), would be associated with wealth and luxury, like other eastern monarchs.
2.54. The epigram suggests that the wife of Linus knows that he likes to be sodomized and that that is why she sets a eunuch (who could not do it) to watch him. Martial pretends to sympathize with Linus for having such a nosy and malicious wife, who treats her husband as if he were a wife by setting a eunuch to guard him (Williams 187).
2.55. Williams observes that Sextus wants flattery and attention from Martial as a client, rather than the affection of a friend, which Martial wants to give him. By emphasizing his superior status, Sextus can demand the flattery, but he loses the friendship (189).
2.56. This poem gives an interesting twist to the usual charge of corruption among provincial Roman officials. Williams observes that Gallus, a Roman official in Libya, has brought his wife along, though it was more customary to leave wives behind when stationed abroad. She is charged with greed, which would normally imply accepting bribes. Martial denies that she takes anything, but insists instead that she gives—implying sexual favors (191). Since the word gallus could mean a eunuch priest of Cybele (Williams 166), the husband’s name in this epigram may also suggest that his wife is turning to foreign lovers because her husband cannot satisfy her.
2.58. Martial suggests that Zoilus bought his toga with borrowed money that has not been repaid (Sullivan 244). A new toga would have a fleecy nap, which would be worn off in an old one (Williams 197).
2.59. Shackleton Bailey notes that Domitian had built a little banqueting hall called Mica Aureus (“The Golden Crumb”) overlooking the Mausoleum of Augustus, in which the Caesars had been buried. Augustus was deified after his death, hence the irony that even a god can die (1:175n). Nard was a perfume made from spikenard and often applied to the hair at banquets, when rose garlands would also be worn (Williams 200). The poem exhorts readers to make the most of physical pleasures because life is short.
2.60. Williams notes that this poem refers to a recent law of Domitian’s prohibiting castration. Hyllus, who is committing adultery with a tribune’s wife, expects, if he is caught, to receive the punishment reserved for boys breaking a law: to be sodomized (201–2). When he protests that castration is against the law, Martial points out that Hyllus too is breaking a law and therefore shouldn’t expect legal protection.
2.61. Williams notes that the unnamed target of this poem performed fellatio while still young; now that he is so repulsive that he is scorned even by paupers’ undertakers and public executioners (professions that were considered unclean), he spitefully uses his tongue to slander everyone. Martial raises the usual assumption that performing oral sex is a filthy act, then turns it around by saying that slandering others is even filthier; unlike the epigram’s target, Martial does not name names in his attacks, or the names he gives are pseudonyms (203–5).
2.62. Williams points out that Labienus is going to extremes by depilating his chest, arms, legs and genitals, though his professed reason is to please his mistress. That he also depilates his buttocks, however, suggests that he likes to be buggered, which was considered a shameful taste in a man. Though his claims about the mistress may be intentional misdirection, many men of the time were bisexual. It was only being penetrated during sex that was considered effeminate (207–8).
2.63. Milichus, though he has only one hundred thousand sesterces left, has spent them all to buy a female slave as a sex partner. Williams states that such a sum was extremely high, but not unheard of for a desirable slave. Martial assumes that love would be the only explanation for such extravagance, but Milichus denies that he loves her, which makes his behavior even more spendthrift (209).
2.65. This poem contains a twofold joke. First, Martial implies that Saleianus’ show of mourning for the death of his rich wife is hypocritical, which Martial subtly satirizes with his melodramatic exclamations about the death. Then, Martial’s last line appears to be condoling with the grieving husband while actually expressing regret at his good fortune.
2.66. Lalage loses her temper when one ringlet of an elaborate hairdo is out of place, so she beats the offending slave girl who has done her hair, using the polished bronze mirror in which she has seen the offending curl. Martial suggests that Lalage deserves to be burned with a curling iron (called a salamander because, like the mythical creature of that name, it could withstand the fire) or have her head shaved so that her appearance would be as ugly as her behavior.
2.67. Because Postumus mindlessly repeats the standard greeting (“How are you doing?”), no matter how often in an hour he meets Martial, Martial concludes that Postumus has nothing to do himself.
2.68. Williams notes that, as a former client of Olus, Martial used to address him as “lord” and “patron,” but now declares his independence by calling Olus by name. The pilleum was a felt cap worn by freed slaves. Martial will give up the dole from his patron, even if it means living in poverty (220–21).
2.70. Martial satirizes Cotilus for his presumed fastidiousness about bathing in water that has washed penises (an image sexualized by saying that the water has been forced to suck penises), pointing out that Cotilus himself can’t bathe without washing his penis before his head (Williams 225).
2.71. Martial pretends to believe that Caecilianus is reading epigrams by Catullus and Marsus (famous masters of the form) to make Martial’s epigrams look better by comparison, though clearly Caecilianus is actually trying to make Martial’s poems look bad. By suggesting that Caecilianus read his own poems instead, Martial implies that they are so bad that they would really make Martial’s look better.
2.73. This epigram appears as a single line in the manuscript, but a preceding line is often supplied by editors to fill out the implied meaning of the poem (Williams 231). Lyris claims that she cannot tell what she is doing when she is drunk, but Martial implies that she might be lying to save face. He informs her that she performs fellatio when drunk—just as she does when sober.
2.76. Legacy-seekers were often disappointed when they gave gifts to wealthy people in the hope of a postmortem bonanza. Here Martial mockingly claims to be shocked at the perfidy of Marius for leaving a legacy to someone who never gave him anything (Shackleton Bailey 1:188n).
2.78. The addressee of this poem, Caecilianus, is being accused of stinginess for not heating his warm bath properly for his guests (Shackleton Bailey 1:189n).
2.79. Martial implies that Nasica has been deliberately inviting Martial to dinner on occasions that he knows Martial is entertaining and can’t come. In retaliation, Martial declines a dinner invitation from Nasica by saying he has a pressing engagement—to dine at home (Shackleton Bailey 1:190n).
2.80. The word hostem (foes) suggests an enemy army, so Fannius is presumably running from battle, not from the law (Shackleton Bailey 1:191n).
2.83. Williams notes that cutting off the nose and ears of an adulterer caught in the act was a well-known punishment, but, as Martial points out, it does not prevent the adulterer from continuing to have sex with the wife. The epigram adds an unexpected, lurid twist by suggesting that the sex might include fellatio, a further shame to the husband (253–54).
2.87. Sextus claims to have young beauties on fire with love for him, yet he has the puffy face of a man holding his breath underwater. Martial implies that Sextus is lying.
2.88. Mamercus, a would-be poet, recites none of his poems, the usual way to establish a reputation as a poet (Williams 266). Martial satirically suggests that Mamercus can keep claiming to be a poet, so long as he recites nothing. Either the poems would definitively prove that he is no poet, or they are so bad that Martial would rather hear the boasts than the poems.
2.89. Williams notes that the practice of citing precedents was common in rhetoric, and here Martial borrows it under the pretense of excusing a series of bad habits of Gaurus. But when he comes to fellatio, he cannot recall any famous possessors of that habit (267).
2.92. Martial likes to boast that the emperor has accorded him the same rights that a father of three children had. Here he claims that he will say farewell to his wife, since to have a wife might make the emperor’s gift unnecessary. As Williams notes, most scholars doubt that Martial was ever married, so the “wife” he addresses is likely just a potential wife. In some poems Martial adopts the persona of a married man for comic purposes (279–80).
2.93. M. Aquilius Regulus, an advocate and patron of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:379), had apparently not been given book 1, possibly because Martial has no copies left to give him (1:199n). Williams suggests that the “modesty” of book 1 was either that it was not worthy to be presented or that it didn’t call itself “Book I,” which would imply that others would follow (281–82). Martial jokingly proposes that the title can be changed by dropping one I from the Roman numeral II.
3.3. The poem appears to be set at a spa, and the goddess mentioned is probably the nymph of the spring. Though people typically bathed naked, the unnamed addressee is advised to wear her tunic to hide her ugly body. The salve on her face was probably intended, like a modern mudpack, to improve the complexion.
3.6. It was customary for young men to dedicate the first shaving of their beards to a god, to mark their entrance into manhood (Shackleton Bailey 1:205n). Marcellinus was a soldier and a friend of Martial’s (3:366).
3.8. The name Thais is associated with prostitutes, including, famously, a courtesan of Alexander the Great. Having one eye is among the physical disabilities that Martial mocks most often.
3.9. Although there was a famous poet named Cinna, a friend of Catullus, the Cinna in this poem has published nothing and, according to Martial, never will.
3.12. Catullus, in his poem 13, invites his friend Fabullus to dinner but warns him to bring the food and wine himself, offering to provide in return some of the perfume of his beloved Lesbia. Martial in this poem jokes that offering perfume and no dinner is suitable for a corpse, which would be anointed to cover the smell of decomposition.
3.14. The dole (sportula) was originally a basket of food given by patrons to their clients; later, small amounts of money (about twenty-five sesterces) would be given instead (Shackleton Bailey 1:85n). The dole was apparently abolished by law around the time this book was written, but seems to have been reinstated later (1:206n). The Mulvian Bridge was outside the Porta Flaminia, on the north side of Rome (1:211n).
3.15. This poem puns on two meanings of “credit”: personal trust and financial lending (Shackleton Bailey 1:211n).
3.17. Martial suggests that the mouth of Sabidius is unclean from performing oral sex, and that his blowing on the tart therefore pollutes it so that no one else will eat it.
3.18. Recitation of poems at dinners was a form of entertainment and a way that Romans made a name for themselves as poets. Readers may suspect that the excuse of Maximus is false modesty and that Martial calls his bluff or that Martial expects a poor reading and therefore is looking for a way to avoid it.
3.22. M. Gavius Apicius, who lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, was famous for his extravagance in pursuit of fine dining (Shackleton Bailey 3:340).
3.26. Murrine was an expensive stone, possibly fluorspar, used to make ornamental carved cups and vessels (Shackleton Bailey 1:221n).
3.27. Martial suggests that Gallus is snubbing him by not inviting him back after repeated dinner invitations from Martial. Martial turns the joke on himself as well, implying he’s a fool to let Gallus take advantage of him.
3.28. Martial suggests that Nestor has either bad breath or an unclean mouth from performing oral sex.
3.32. Hecuba was turned into a bitch by rage after losing her children. Niobe was turned to stone from grief after losing hers. Martial often jokes about the temptation to make money by marrying a rich old woman, but he always presents the option as unappealing; there is no evidence that he ever married.
3.33. There is more prestige to having freeborn sexual partners, but Martial implies that looks trump status every time.
3.34. Chione, a Greek name, suggests that the addressee is likely to be a prostitute. Fair skin was considered more desirable than dark skin, a fact that Martial alludes to often.
3.37. This poem implies that wealthy patrons use pretended offenses as excuses not to be generous with their gifts. As a satirist, Martial may have had patrons who thought his attacks were aimed at them, though he insisted that he never targeted individuals.
3.39. Lycoris, a Greek name, often is used by Martial for a prostitute; Ganymede was a Trojan prince so handsome that he was abducted by Jove to be his cupbearer and catamite. Martial’s humor frequently targets physical disabilities. Faustinus was a wealthy friend whom Martial addresses or refers to nineteen times in his poems (Howell, Commentary 161).
3.41. Martial often jokes about being unable to repay the loans he gets from patrons. Here, because he does pay the loan back, he jokes that he is the one doing his patron a favor.
3.43. Proserpina is the Roman goddess of the dead, who is not fooled about the true age of Laetinus. The mask described is the kind used by actors, worn with a wig to cover the entire head.
3.45. Thyestes was tricked into eating his own sons by his brother Atreus, who chopped them up, cooked them, and served them to their father. Phoebus Apollo, the sun god, was so appalled at the sight that he reversed his course (Shackleton Bailey 3:342). Ligurinus tries to attract willing listeners by inviting them to a lavish dinner of delicacies: expensive fish, oysters, and mushrooms. But the good food cannot compensate for his dreadful poetry.
3.48. Shackleton Bailey notes that a “pauper’s cell” was a small, meagerly furnished room in a rich man’s house, a novel contrast to the usual luxury of the place. Though Olus has not literally become a pauper, he has foolishly transformed his valuable land into something worthless (1:235n).
3.49. Martial often mentions Veientan wine as a bad wine and Massic as an excellent one. The host is being satirized for serving his guests wine much worse than he himself is drinking.
3.51. Martial implies that Galla must have some physical flaws she is trying to hide by not bathing with him (Shackleton Bailey 1:237n).
3.53. Chloe’s Greek name suggests that she is a prostitute.
3.54. Galla is an expensive prostitute. Martial asks her to refuse him so that he will not have to admit that he cannot afford her.
3.55. Cosmus is mentioned in many of Martial’s epigrams as a perfumer (Shackleton Bailey 3:350). Martial implies that Gellia may use perfume not just to be fashionable, but to cover up offensive body odor.
3.57. Ravenna was suffering from such a drought that Martial jokes that innkeepers would cheat their customers not by overwatering the wine, as usual, but by serving the wine neat. Romans did not usually drink wine that had not been diluted with water.
3.61. Martial puns on two meanings of “denying nothing”: “giving everything” and “denying even the request for nothing.” Cinna is labeled improbus (i.e., dishonest) for pretending that his requests are minimal when they are not.
3.64. This poem, addressed to Martial’s friend Cassianus, is a compliment to another friend, Canius Rufus of Gades (in Spain), an author mentioned in several of Martial’s epigrams (Shackleton Bailey 3:346). The sirens, part bird, part woman, were deadly dangers that Ulysses (Odysseus) managed to escape by putting wax in his men’s ears and having them tie him to the mast of his ship as he sailed past. Martial is implying that Canius is even more riveting as a storyteller than the Sirens were as singers.
3.65. Diadumenus, the addressee here and in 5.46 and 6.34, appears to be a boy slave of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:352).
3.68. Martial here signals a switch to more obscene epigrams in the latter half of the book, poking fun at Roman matrons whose pose of modesty, he suggests, covers a fascination with the obscene material in which they are supposed to have no interest. According to Shackleton Bailey, there is no record elsewhere of the ceremony of Venus mentioned in the poem (1:252n). The object that Venus welcomes in the rite is clearly a representation of a penis; statues of Priapus, who is portrayed with an oversized penis, were placed in gardens to protect them from thieves. Terpsichore, the Muse of dancing, here symbolizes the dancing girls and prostitutes that would have entertained men at drinking parties.
3.69. While purporting to praise the innocuous poems of Cosconius, Martial makes his own sound much more appealing. Martial often feels the need to defend his poems from attacks on their obscenity. Here his argument is that he is suiting his language to his intended audience.
3.70. The addressee of this poem is Scaevinus, whose name comes from scaevus, a Latin word meaning “perverse.”
3.71. Naevolus is accused of enjoying being buggered, which was considered shameful.
3.72. Martial implies that Saufeia’s false modesty either is a cover for deformity or is foolish because it leads him to that assumption as the only possible explanation for her contradictory behavior.
3.73. This poem poses a riddle: if Phoebus is sleeping with well-hung boys, but is impotent himself, one might assume that he enjoys being buggered, but rumor denies that. What other alternative is there? Only the even more disreputable one that he enjoys performing fellatio.
3.76. Andromache was Hector’s beautiful wife in The Iliad and Hecuba was his ancient mother.
3.79. Martial often takes an odd behavioral quirk, as here, and extends it to the point of absurdity.
3.80. Apicius has a wicked tongue, Martial implies, because he performs oral sex.
3.83. Chione is a Greek name that Martial often uses for prostitutes. In 3.87 he uses that name for a prostitute who performs fellatio. For a poet to be told to imitate a prostitute is insulting, but Martial replies that he can’t possibly match her for speed.
3.84. Martial is punning on the fact that linguam (tongue) is a feminine noun when he implies not that Gongylion’s wife has a female lover, but that Gongylion’s own tongue is her lover.
3.86. In poem 3.68 Martial had warned chaste matrons to read no further in book 3 because what followed would be openly obscene poems. Here he pretends to have caught the ladies still reading, but he argues that the mimes that ladies would see in the theater are just as obscene as anything in his book.
3.87. Martial presents a paradox: Chione has never been fucked and wears a loincloth at the public baths in a show of excessive modesty, yet she is shameless. He implies that she performs fellatio, and therefore shouldn’t show her face in public.
3.88. This poem is an example of Martial’s love of seeming contradictions.
3.89. Soft mallows and lettuce, Martial suggests, were used as cures for constipation, but Martial is probably making fun of the facial expression of Phoebus, not offering helpful dietary hints.
3.90. Shackleton Bailey points out that quid sibi velit can mean both “what she means” and “what she wants for herself ” (1:267n).
3.94. Martial may be implying that the host is cheap, as well as irascible, and that he is using the undercooked hare as an excuse not to serve anything. The Latin name Rufus (which means “red”) would suit an angry man.
3.96. Shackleton Bailey suggests that Gargilius would not be talking because he would be forced to perform fellatio on the speaker as a punishment (1:273n). Another possible explanation is that the speaker would cut out the tongue of Gargilius.
3.100. Martial here seems to be indulging in self-deprecatory modesty in saying that his book deserves to be washed out, though that may be because of the obscenity that he has acknowledged in it.
4.6. Stella, a patron of Martial’s, wrote elegiac poetry himself, so to recite the same kind of poetry while a guest in his house would be insulting to him (Shackleton Bailey 1:282n).
4.7. Hyllus is here presumed to be a boy slave of Martial’s, and is trying to get out of having to have sex with him by claiming to have reached man-hood. Though sex with boys was customary and accepted, sex with grown men was frowned on (Moreno Soldevila 133).
4.12. Thais is a name often used by Martial for prostitutes. The fact that she doesn’t draw the line at fellatio puts her among the most debased prostitutes.
4.13. The addressee of this poem, Rufus, has not been identified, since there are several men named Rufus in Martial’s poems, some real and some apparently invented (Moreno Soldevila 167). Aulus Pudens was a friend of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:378). Hymen is the god of marriage, and torches were part of the wedding procession, accompanying the bride from her home to her husband’s (Moreno Soldevila 169). Nard and cinnamon were both used in perfumes, and honey was often mixed into wine. Martial refers to Massic wine as being one of the best wines, and the honey from the region around Athens, home of Theseus, was also renowned. Grape vines were often trained to grow up elms, so the elm and vine together were a symbol of marriage in Roman times (171–72).
4.15. The platter and serving tools would have been made of silver and therefore worth more than the amount of the original loan request (Moreno Soldevila 188).
4.16. M. Tullius Cicero was the famous orator and statesman of Republican times. M. Aquilius Regulus was a famed contemporary advocate and a patron of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:379). Romans defined incest as including relatives by marriage, not just by blood, so Martial is implying that the relationship between stepmother and stepson is incestuous and was probably adulterous when the father of Gallus was alive (Moreno Soldevila 190).
4.17. Moreno Soldevila notes that the Greek name Lycisca suggests that its owner is a prostitute. Paulus is inciting Martial to write poems attacking her character in order to shame her and make her angry. Martial suggests, however, that Paulus wants to shame her not because he disapproves of her performing fellatio, but because he wants to make her lose other customers (including, possibly, Martial himself ) so that Paulus can have her to himself (Moreno Soldevila 195–96).
4.20. Shackleton Bailey identifies the addressee, Collinus, as a poet who had won the Capitoline poetry contest (3:349), which was founded by Domitian and held every five years (1:276–77n). The contrast between a young woman who wants to pretend she’s older and the old woman who wants to pretend she’s younger is typical of Martial’s irony. Pupa literally means “doll,” but is used metaphorically for an attractive woman (Moreno Soldevila 212).
4.21. Martial purports to take it as ironic confirmation of the atheistic views of Segius that such a wicked man is prospering.
4.22. For the purposes of this erotic epigram, Martial pretends to be a newly married husband.
4.24. There is no evidence that Martial ever married, but he sometimes speaks as if he were married, in order to exploit satirical humor about wives and marriage. Fabianus is the addressee of this poem; Shackleton Bailey assumes he is an invented figure, not an actual friend of Martial’s (3:354).
4.26. Martial implies that Postumus is so stingy a patron that it is not worth the trouble to be his client. One would have to wear a toga to pay morning calls, so the rewards from Postumus in a year do not even cover the cost of the necessary wardrobe.
4.27. One of the gifts Domitian (here referred to by his title Augustus) gave Martial was the Right of Three Children (Shackleton Bailey 1:299n). This poem is both a thanks to the Emperor and a graceful way to beg for more gifts.
4.29. Aulus Pudens was a friend of Martial, who mentions him in sixteen epigrams (Howell, Commentary 172). As the number of his books increased, Martial seems to have worried that their frequency would lower their esteem and make them be taken for granted. I follow Shackleton Bailey’s hypothesis that Martial is ranking the satirist Persius, who wrote a book of satires under Nero (3:375), and Marsus the epigrammatist (3:366) as if their books were scoring points in a game (1:300n).
4.32. Amber is called Phaethon’s drop because of the myth that after Phaethon was killed by a thunderbolt from Jupiter his grieving sisters were turned into poplar trees, whose weeping sap became amber (recounted in book two of Ovid’s Metamorphoses).
4.33. What looks like a compliment to Sosibianus for his poetry is actually a sly way of wishing he were dead (Shackleton Bailey 1:305n).
4.34. This riddling epigram implies that the toga is cold because it is threadbare (Shackleton Bailey 1:305n). Martial plays on the fact that snow may not be white, but is always cold.
4.36. Shackleton Bailey hypothesizes that Olus can’t dye his beard because of a skin disease (1:305n).
4.38. Galla is a name often used by Martial for prostitutes. Martial suggests that playing hard to get can make a woman more attractive, but can be carried too far.
4.41. Presumably, the person about to recite has a cold and is trying to protect his throat by wrapping it in a scarf. But hoarseness is not desirable in a speaker (Moreno Soldevila 307). The poem also hints that the work to be recited is not worth hearing.
4.43. According to Shackleton Bailey, Pontia and Metilius were wellknown poisoners (1:311n). Cybele, the Mother Goddess, was identified with the Syrian goddess Atargetis (1:312n) and was associated with Berecynthus, a region in Phrygia where she was worshiped (3:343). Cybele was thought to afflict wrongdoers with tumors (1:312n), and her priests castrated themselves in a fit of madness sent by the goddess (Moreno Soldevila 323). In swearing by these tumors and frenzies, Martial is wishing them on himself if he is lying (319).
4.44. Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, destroying Pompeii, whose patron goddess was Venus, and Herculaneum, which was dedicated to Hercules. There was also a famous temple to Venus in Sparta (Shackleton Bailey 1:313n). Nysa was the mountain where the god Bacchus was raised (Moreno Soldevila 329). Martial implies that the gods wish it had not been in their power to destroy places so dear to them. Since Martial reports visits of his to Baiae, a resort on the bay of Naples, he would have seen the volcano Vesuvius firsthand.
4.47. Moreno Soldevila notes that encaustic painting was done using heated, pigmented wax on a tablet (350–51). Martial is joking that Phaethon, who burned up in lightning sent by Jupiter, didn’t deserve to be fired a second time. Shackleton Bailey suggests that there may be a pun as well on the name of a twicebaked bread (1:317n).
4.49. Martial is annoyed that turgid retellings of myth were ranked higher in the literary canon than the satiric epigrams that he wrote, but he counters that his own poems are far more popular with readers. He focuses particularly on writers retelling sensational stories of fathers tricked into eating their own sons (Tereus and Thyestes) or filling in trivial background in stories whose real action happens later (Daedalus and Polyphemus). Martial alludes to the robes with trains that tragic actors wore and the ranting, exaggerated style of acting in tragedies, implicitly contrasting them with the more realistic style of his own work.
4.50. Richlin points out that Martial here is alluding to the assumption that old men were the most likely to need oral sex in order to achieve an erection. Thais, a prostitute, insults Martial by calling him old, so he insults her by pointing out that she performs fellatio (Richlin, “Meaning of Irrumare” 44).
4.51. Martial, while pretending to wish Caecilianus well, is actually hoping that he will lose his fortune.
4.56. Gargilianus is angling for large legacies from the people to whom he gives. Martial invites him to learn the true meaning of generosity by giving a gift to Martial, from whom he will get nothing in return.
4.58. Galla has presumably shut herself in a dark room to weep, but Martial suggests that she seeks privacy so that no one will see that she is not weeping.
4.59. Since Cleopatra was killed by a viper, it is ironic that a viper should have a tomb more magnificent than hers. The snake described here would have been quite small (Shackleton Bailey 1:327n).
4.63. Nero had tried to have his mother Agrippina drowned by a collapsing boat in the same vicinity (Shackleton Bailey 1:331n).
4.65. This poem is a riddle: How can Philaenis weep from just one eye? The answer is that she has only one.
4.69. The good wines that Martial mentions are Setine and Massic. Papylus is rumored to have poisoned his four wives with wine. Though Martial says he doesn’t believe the gossip, by saying he isn’t thirsty, he shows that he does.
4.70. The addressee of this poem is Marullinus, presumably a friend of Martial’s, though not mentioned in other epigrams. Ammianus, who had been wishing for his father’s death, regrets it because he is disinherited. The rope he is left suggests that he is being urged to hang himself for some dreadful offense; epigram 2.4, also about an Ammianus, had implied that he was guilty of incest with his mother (Moreno Soldevila 471).
4.71. Safronius Rufus, a friend of Martial’s, is described in 11.103 as being extremely modest, so he would be an ideal addressee for Martial’s complaint about the shamelessness of women. For no girl to say no sounds like a positive result for men seeking to sleep with them, but Martial points out that many also don’t say yes, but coyly keep the men in suspense (Moreno Soldevila 473).
4.72. Quintus is interested only in free copies of Martial’s books. When Martial tells him where he can buy the books, Quintus shows how little interest in the books he actually has. This poem is both an advertisement for Martial’s bookseller and a warning to those who might ask Martial for free copies. Copies, which would be expensive to have made, might be given for free to friends and patrons, but Martial’s response implies that Quintus is neither (Moreno Soldevila 475–76).
4.75. Moreno Soldevila notes that Mummia Nigrina is being praised for sharing her wealth with her husband Rusticus Antistius. Roman women had the right to inherit their father’s wealth, retain part of their dowry in the case of divorce, and make their own financial decisions. That Nigrina makes all of her wealth over to her husband is a sign of her extraordinary love for him, which Martial compares favorably to that of Evadne, who burned herself on the pyre of her husband Capaneus, and of Alcestis, who offered her own life to preserve the life of her husband Admetus when he was due to die (487–90).
4.76. When disappointed by an unnamed stingy lender, Martial suggests that the way to get the amount he wants in the future is to double the amount he asks for.
4.77. Martial jokes that he wants wealth not for his own sake, but to provoke suicide in an envious man.
4.79. Matho is not one of Martial’s known friends, and Martial’s property outside of Rome is elsewhere said to be in Nomentum (see 2.38), so the incident described in this poem may be invented (Moreno Soldevila 503). The joke is partly that, as a guest, Matho would have had all the benefits of the property without the cost of buying it.
4.81. The epigram mentioned is 4.71. Martial frequently comments in one epigram on the purported reactions of a reader to a previous epigram of his, as in 3.68 and 3.86 (Moreno Soldevila 509).
4.83. Martial loves a paradox, here the irony that Naevolus is only considerate when he is worried.
4.84. The answer to the riddle of how a woman who doesn’t fuck can be immodest is that she does something even worse: she performs fellatio.
4.85. Ponticus drinks from a cup made of murrine, a semiprecious stone whose opacity would have hidden that he is drinking higher-quality wine than he is serving his guests. The name Ponticus (meaning “from Pontus,” a rich province in Asia Minor) would suit a man who flaunts his wealth.
4.87. Moreno Soldevila notes that calling Bassa “your Bassa” suggests that she is the mistress of Fabullus (534). Bassa pretends to dote on infants and often keeps one near her, not because she likes babies, but so that when she farts she can blame the smell on the child.
5.2. Howell notes that Martial presents this book as one that will contain only clean poems, as a tribute to Domitian in his role of censor, enforcer of public morality. Emperor Domitian added Germanicus to his name after his victory over the Chatti in Germany in 83 CE. Minerva is called “the Cecropian girl” after Cecrops, the first king of Athens (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 79). Domitian considered Minerva, the virgin goddess of wisdom, to be his patron goddess (Shackleton Bailey 1:354n).
5.4. Myrtale’s use of laurel to cover the odor of alcohol can’t disguise her other symptoms of inebriation. She drinks her wine unmixed with water, which would be typical only of heavy drinkers. Howell notes that the name Myrtale comes from the word for myrtle, a flower associated with Venus. She is therefore likely to be a prostitute (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 80).
5.9. Martial frequently jokes that doctors make their patients worse. Symmachus is a Greek name, as most doctors were Greek (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 85). The number of students he brings with him is probably exaggerated for comic effect.
5.17. Gellia brags of her illustrious ancestors and snubs Martial as a mere knight, saying that she wouldn’t marry less than a senator, but actually settles for a cistiber, a minor police officer (Shackleton Bailey 1:369n).
5.20. Howell notes that the addressee of this poem, Julius Martialis, was one of Martial’s closest and oldest friends, to whom he refers in almost all of his books of epigrams (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 99). The “proud busts” would be the wax images of ancestors that decorated the atrium of a great man’s house (100). The campus mentioned is the Campus Martius, where men went to exercise or swim in the Tiber (100). The colonnade would be one of several porticoes built to provide shade on sunny days or shelter from the rain (86). The Virgo is the Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct that brought water to the baths in the Campus Martius (101).
5.32. Faustinus, the addressee of this poem, was a friend and patron of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:355). Quadrantem, the amount that here is translated as “a cent,” is a quarter of an as, a low-value bronze coin. Since it doesn’t make sense for someone to leave money to himself, Shackleton Bailey proposes that Crispus has spent all of his money before he dies (1:385n).
5.33. Martial is threatening to satirize the lawyer if he learns which one is criticizing his verse.
5.34. Martial writes several elegies for his little slave girl Erotion, whose shade he asks his dead parents to watch over in the underworld, so that she will not be frightened by Cerberus, the three-headed hound guarding Tartarus. She died six days short of her sixth birthday.
5.36. Martial complains to his friend Faustinus about having been cheated by a man he flattered in the hope of reward, only to discover that the man had no sense of obligation to Martial in return. The humor lies in the implication that flattery creates a kind of contract between the flatterer and the flattered (Shackleton Bailey 1:387n).
5.42. The flames are impious because they destroy the familial lares, the household gods here used to symbolize the family home (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 128). The mistress is presumably despoiling the steward not by sleeping with him, but by demanding large sums of money that must come out of the estate of her lover. This poem, which argues that the only way to be sure to benefit from wealth is by giving it to friends and receiving their permanent gratitude, may be a graceful way to ask for money.
5.43. Thais and Laecania are names used by Martial for prostitutes (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 129).
5.45. Martial implies that if Bassa were either young or beautiful, she wouldn’t need to say so.
5.46. Martial states that the sexual unwillingness of his slave Diadumenus is part of the attraction, so he beats the boy to make him resistant, then begs him for sex. The frequent beatings cause resentment, so he loses the boy’s love, but the begging makes the boy aware of his power, so he ceases to fear Martial as well. Diadumenus is also mentioned in 3.65 and 6.34 and may be one of Martial’s actual slaves (Shackleton Bailey 3:352).
5.47. Philo’s boast that he never dines at home suggests that he is much in demand as a dinner guest, but Martial implies that it actually means he can’t afford to feed himself.
5.52. The boasting of Postumus about his own generosity is bad form, as was Fabulla’s boasting about her youth, beauty, and wealth in 1.64.
5.53. Martial often puts down those who write on melodramatic mythological subjects. Here he suggests that Bassus has no understanding of Medea (who killed her own children and her husband’s new bride as revenge for his abandonment of her), Thyestes (who was tricked into eating his own children by his brother Atreus), Niobe (who turned to stone from grief after all of her fourteen children were slaughtered by Apollo and Diana), or Andromache (whose husband was killed by Achilles and her baby son by the Greek army at Troy). Instead, Martial suggests more fitting subjects: Deucalion (one of the two survivors of a flood that killed the rest of humanity) or Phaethon (killed by a lightning bolt after nearly burning up the world while driving the chariot of the sun). Martial is slyly suggesting that flood and fire are appropriate subjects because the writing deserved to be washed out or burned (Shackleton Bailey 1:402n).
5.57. Shackleton Bailey notes that boy slaves who were favorites of their master might be called “my lord” by him as a sign of their power over his heart (1:405n).
5.58. Parthia and Armenia, both traditional enemies of Rome, were very far off, as well. Priam, the king of Troy, and Nestor, the king of Pylos, in The Iliad were both exemplars of men who had reached advanced age; the tomorrow in which Postumus will live has been postponed so long that it is now as old as they are.
5.59. Martial suggests that his modest gift of earthenware is meant to remove any obligation from Stella to give expensive gifts in return. Lucius Arruntius Stella, himself a poet, was a friend and patron of Martial (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 142).
5.64. Howell notes that Falernian was an excellent and expensive wine, and cooling it with snow in summer would also be an expensive luxury. Romans typically perfumed their hair with scented oils and wore floral garlands on their heads at drinking parties. Slaves named Callistus and Alcimus appear also in 8.67 and 1.88 as Martial’s own slaves, though in 1.88 Alcimus is said to have died. The Mausolea most likely included the tombs of Augustus and Julius Caesar (both deified after their deaths), which Martial could probably have seen from his apartment on the Quirinal hill (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 147–48).
5.66. “Farewell forever” was the typical salutation to the dead (Shackleton Bailey 1:413n). By never greeting Martial first, Pontilianus would be treating him as a social inferior (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 150).
5.68. Shackleton Bailey guesses that this is not a compliment to Lesbia, but a satirical suggestion that she bleaches her hair too much (1:413n). To have lighter hair than the true blondes would look phony. Lesbia was the name Catullus gave to the woman he loved; Martial tends to use the name in epigrams of a sexual nature (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 151).
5.73. Martial uses the name Theodorus, meaning “God’s gift” (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 155), for a bad poet in 11.93, and writes a similar excuse for not sending free copies of his books to another poet, Pontilianus, in 7.3.
5.74. Howell notes that Pompey the Great’s older son was killed in Asia Minor, his younger son in Spain, and himself in Egypt (Libya is here used to suggest Africa). His family was thus spread among the three known continents, though there is some question about whether Pompey himself was buried at all (Martial: Epigrams V 155–56).
5.75. The Lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis, a law originated by Augustus to discourage adultery, was revived by Domitian in 85 CE (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 156).
5.76. Howell notes that Mithridates VI of Pontus fought the Romans in three wars in the first century BCE. Pliny recounts that Mithridates took poison in small doses to build up an immunity to it, since eastern rulers often had to fear poison from rivals or members of their own families (cited in Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 156). Martial is probably making fun of Cinna not for being poor, but for being miserly (156).
5.79. Zoilus is using sweating as an excuse to show off his extensive wardrobe of fancy dinner suits. A synthesis is a matching tunic and loose, sleeveless cloak, usually worn at dinner parties (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 161). Martial jokes that he himself doesn’t sweat at the party of Zoilus because he doesn’t have a second suit to change into.
5.81. The idea that “the rich get richer” would have special relevance in Rome, where people regularly gave lavish gifts to the wealthy in hope of legacies or other benefits from them.
5.82. The Greek name Gaurus means “pompous,” which is relevant in this epigram (Howell, Martial: Epigrams V 163). He boasts of the large sums he will give Martial, but then gives nothing at all.
5.83. Howell notes that the name Dindymus comes from a mountain associated with the goddess Cybele, known for having eunuchs as her priests. Martial uses it of boys in erotic contexts (Martial: Epigrams V 164). Because the name is Greek, it would likely be the name of a slave. Martial frequently returns to the theme of the erotic stimulus provided by reluctance in a lover.
6.6. Martial implies that Paula, the wife or mistress of Lupercus, loves not only all three actors, but a fourth in a nonspeaking role. The Greek term means “walker-on” (Shackleton Bailey 2:5n).
6.12. As in 2.20, Martial’s joke here is based on the idea that once you buy something, it is considered to be yours.
6.14. Martial implies that such a person does not exist (Shackleton Bailey 2:11n).
6.15. Phaethontea refers to the sisters of Phaethon, who were transformed into poplar trees that wept the sap that became amber. Amber that contained trapped insects was more valuable than clear amber. I wish to thank an anonymous reviewer of this manuscript for pointing out that the amber drop symbolizes an epigram itself, which makes common objects precious by means of a rich setting.
6.16. The god Priapus, guardian of gardens, was portrayed with a huge penis and a sickle, and was supposed to keep thieves away with the threat of castration (for men) or rape: oral rape for men, vaginal for women, or anal for boys (Richlin, Garden of Priapus 121). Martial tells the statue of Priapus that guards his small orchard to keep away the adult thieves, but allow in boys and long-haired girls, presumably not to be kind, but to enable Martial to rape or sodomize them himself.
6.17. Shackleton Bailey points out that the Greek freedman Cinnamus wishes to change his name to a Roman name, Cinna, to hide his slave origins. Martial calls the idea barbarous (punning on the Greek word meaning “foreigner”) and suggests that if Cinnamus had originally had the name Furius, it ought to be shortened to Fur, Latin for “thief ” (Shackleton Bailey 2:13n).
6.18. This poem seems to be intended to comfort Terentius Priscus, a Spanish friend and patron of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:385), for the death of his relative Saloninus (3:380–81).
6.20. Martial frequently portrays himself as asking for loans from reluctant patrons. Here he implies that the loan isn’t worth the wait that Phoebus puts him through.
6.22. The lex Iulia was a recently revived law to punish adultery.
6.23. Lesbia, the pseudonym used by Catullus for his mistress, is a name Martial often uses for women of loose morals. Here he implies that her imperious commands are off-putting in themselves and are further contradicted by her ugly face.
6.24. Men usually wore togas only on formal occasions, not on holidays such as the Saturnalia.
6.30. The sum Martial asked to borrow would be a small one to a rich man, though it was about five times the annual salary of a Roman legionary (a fact for which I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer). Clearly, Martial needed it urgently. Given when it is no longer needed, it creates no gratitude toward the giver.
6.33. Presumably Sabellus has had to marry to make up for his financial losses.
6.34. Martial alludes to poems 5 and 7 of Catullus, in which Catullus proposes to add up the thousands of kisses he begs from Lesbia. Catullus, however, also proposed to muddle the total, a fact that Martial ignores (as an anonymous reviewer pointed out).
6.36. Martial often makes fun of people who have exaggerated physical characteristics.
6.40. Lycoris and Glycera are both names that Martial often uses for prostitutes.
6.41. The unnamed poet in question has a sore throat and yet tries to recite anyway.
6.45. This epigram alludes to the lex Iulia, meant to punish adultery. Laetoria (who was an adulteress while she was single) will behave even worse when she herself is married and therefore safe from having her adultery exposed by becoming pregnant.
6.46. Shackleton Bailey mentions that “to do a great thing” could mean “to make a lot of money,” but he dismisses that possibility as being irrelevant, preferring Birt’s suggestion that the horses are defecating (Shackleton Bailey 2:36n). The driver, however, could be making a lot of money by losing deliberately, if he were paid to throw the race. The lashing of the horses could be for show, if the charioteer did other things to make it hard for the horses to run.
6.48. Pomponius is presumably an orator or advocate whose fine dinners ensure a devoted crowd of clients to shout his praise.
6.50. Martial implies that Telesinus is earning money through his sexual services to effeminate men.
6.51. Martial jokes that he will snub Lupercus for not inviting him to dinner, implying that even if Lupercus begs and pleads . . . Martial will come.
6.52. Like 5.34, this poem seems to be about one of Martial’s own slaves, who died as a child. His epitaphs for dead child slaves show Martial at his most tender.
6.53. Faustinus was a patron and friend of Martial’s and is mentioned in many other epigrams of his (Shackleton Bailey 3:355). The tendency of doctors to kill rather than cure is one of Martial’s standard jokes, here exaggerated for effect so that even a dream of the doctor can be deadly.
6.55. Martial is implying both that Coracinus is effeminate for his over-use of perfume and that he is covering up other odors with it, such as those from performing oral sex. The mythical phoenix, a bird that was the only one of its kind, would be reborn from the ashes after burning itself on a nest of spices.
6.56. Martial hints that the gossip accuses Charidemus of something even more shameful than being sodomized, presumably performing oral sex.
6.57. Though wigs were available to cover baldness, Phoebus resorts to painting curls on his head with ointment.
6.59. Martial frequently attacks those who like to show off their extensive wardrobes unnecessarily, contrasting their abundance with his own more limited wardrobe.
6.60. Martial implies that he is as happy to arouse a negative reaction as a positive one with his poems. If the poems annoy some, the satire must be working.
6.62. This poem satirizes fortune hunters who ingratiate themselves with the rich and childless in the hope of inheriting their fortunes. Here Martial makes the practice even more repellent by portraying the fortune hunter as a vulture feeding on the fresh corpse of the son.
6.66. Martial implies that auctioneers had such a poor reputation that even a common whore is reluctant to kiss one. When the auctioneer kisses the whore to prove that she is clean, he lowers her value more.
6.79. When Lupus remains depressed despite his good fortune, Martial suggests, he is insulting the goddess who gave him good luck.
6.82. Batavians were a barbarian tribe living in what is now Holland (Shackleton Bailey 3:343). Martial suggests that, as foreigners, they wouldn’t get Martial’s jokes. This epigram illustrates both Martial’s selfdeprecatory humor and his skill at gracefully asking for favors from patrons.
6.84. This poem puns on two meanings of sanus. Though Philippus is sound of body, Martial implies that he is not sound of mind to insist on being carried on a litter (Shackleton Bailey 2:67n).
6.86. Setine wine was of high quality. Martial implies that his doctors are telling him not to drink for the sake of his health. Midas is symbolic both of great wealth and of foolishness, since once he got his wish to be able to turn all he touched to gold, he was unable to eat or drink. The poem lists harvests from Libya (one of the breadbaskets of the Roman Empire) and the Tagus and Hermus, gold-bearing rivers in Hispania (Shackleton Bailey 3:384) and Lydia (3:358) respectively, as symbols of the wealth that Martial would not trade for the pleasures of wine.
6.90. Gellia’s moderation in adultery is offset by the fact that she is a bigamist.
6.91. Martial says elsewhere that Zoilus is a fellator (Shackleton Bailey 2:71n). Martial’s congratulations are ironic, because the poem implies that Zoilus performs even more shameful acts than adultery.
7.3. This epigram is addressed to Pontilianus. Martial refers to the common practice of exchanging books with other writers in 5.73 as well.
7.4. Scholars and poets were noted for their paleness, but in 1.77 Martial alludes to the idea that pallor can be caused by performing cunnilingus. Oppianus claims to be a poet in order to avoid the imputation that he performs cunnilingus (Shackleton Bailey 2:76–77n.). Castricus was a poet friend of Martial’s (3:347).
7.9. Cascellius has the intelligence and talent to be a lawyer, but lacks the public speaking skills (Shackleton Bailey 2:81n).
7.11. Aulus Pudens was a friend of Martial’s and is mentioned in many of his epigrams (Shackleton Bailey 3:378). The poem implies that Pudens wants Martial to emend the books in his own hand to increase their value (2:82n).
7.13. Shackleton Bailey notes that sulfurous fumes from the springs at Tibur were reported to have the ability to bleach ivory (2:84n). Galán Vioque points out that Tibur could be called “the hills of Hercules” because of the temple to Hercules found there (116). Lycoris would not be literally black, but her skin would be darker than it was before she left, presumably because exposing her skin to the air also exposed it to the sun.
7.14. The Aulus of this poem is the same Aulus Pudens mentioned in 7.11 (Shackleton Bailey 3:378). Martial alludes to poem 3 of Catullus, mourning the death of his mistress Lesbia’s pet sparrow, as well as to a poem written by Martial’s patron Stella in imitation of that poem, about the death of the pet black dove of his mistress Ianthis. Whereas Catullus had used erotic language to describe Lesbia’s relation to her pet bird, Martial makes the sexual relationship with the “pet” literal. The overblown language of the lament is deliberately undercut by the discovery that the pet the girlfriend has lost is a young male slave with an oversized penis. Galán Vioque points out that the manuscript reads denos, not senos, which would make the boy’s age twenty instead of twelve (127). One can assume either that “boy” is used ironically of one who is still developing physically at twenty or that the twelve-year-old is out-rageously precocious in his development. I have chosen to go with the assumption of precocity, but either assumption is funny in its absurdity.
7.16. Marcus Aquilius Regulus was a famous advocate and patron of Martial, who addressed several epigrams to him (Shackleton Bailey 3:379). Patrons usually gave their clients gifts, loans, or dinner invitations rather than cash payments, affording the appearance of friendship to what was often a dependent relationship. Martial humorously offers to sell the gifts of Regulus back to their donor to make some ready cash.
7.18. Symmachus is a name Martial also uses in 5.9 for a doctor. The belief that a fart could kill a person if not released was common. It is mentioned, for instance, in a Greek epigram by Nicarchus in The Greek Anthology (11:395).
7.19. The fragment of wood described in this epigram supposedly once formed part of the keel of the Argo, the first ship to sail the sea, which was therefore “unknown” before (Galán Vioque 153). Jason and his crew, in order to retrieve the Golden Fleece, had to sail between the Cyanean Rocks, which clashed together to crush anything that came between them, and into the Black Sea (here called the Scythian Sea because the land of Scythia bordered it on the northeast). This scrap of keel may have been owned by one of Martial’s wealthy patrons and praise of it would therefore be intended as indirect praise of the patron.
7.21. Argentaria Polla, the widow of the poet Lucan (Shackleton Bailey 3:377), was one of Martial’s early patrons (1:1). Lucan had been forced to commit suicide by Emperor Nero (3:364).
7.25. Martial here argues in favor of caustic wit in epigrams, attacking an unnamed rival whose epigrams lack that quality. Galán Vioque notes that Romans used white lead carbonate powder to lighten their complexions (186), and that the Chian fig “has a special taste, like a mixture of wine and salt” (190).
7.30. This satirical attack is both xenophobic and misogynistic in targeting a Roman woman who sleeps with foreigners of any race, but not with her own kind. The fact that she is a Roman citizen is withheld until the penultimate line for added impact. Galán Vioque points out that Parthians, Germans, and Dacians were noted enemies of Rome; that all of the nationalities mentioned were from very distant parts of the empire; that Memphis and the Pharos lighthouse were in Egypt; and that circumcision was looked down on by Romans. The fact that the Scythian is mounted suggests sex in which the woman is “riding” the man (216–19).
7.39. Martial often refers to the tediousness of paying morning calls on patrons. Here Caelius has found a plausible excuse for avoiding the visits by faking gout, but he fakes it so well that soon he has the disease for real.
7.43. As in 6.20, Martial complains about a patron who will neither grant a request nor refuse it, keeping Martial in suspense.
7.46. Thalia is the Muse of comedy, so Priscus is presumably trying to compete with Martial in writing witty epigrams. But Martial points out that poor men like himself would rather have the present than the poem.
7.48. Martial is making fun of a host who departs from the usual custom of having tables for his guests. Instead, the dishes are carried around by pages. Martial complains that the dishes come by so fast that diners can’t grab them.
7.62. Galán Vioque notes that for a man to have sex with an adult male slave was less acceptable than to do so with a boy, but not embarrassing so long as the slave took the passive role. The preference of Hamillus for adult slaves is suspicious and inspires Martial’s conclusion that Hamillus buggers the slaves in public to hide his taking the passive role in private (361–62).
7.70. Galán Vioque points out that Martial uses the active form of the verb meaning “to fuck,” implying that Philaenis, a lesbian, takes the masculine role in sex. Amica means both “female friend” and “female lover” (402–3).
7.75. The figure of the lecherous old woman who has to pay for sex is a frequent target of Martial’s. Here she deludes herself that someone would be willing to sleep with her for free. In Latin, the punch line says “you want to give and not to give,” punning on two meanings of dare: “to offer oneself sexually” and “to offer money.”
7.76. Galán Vioque observes that dinner parties, porticoes, and theaters were places that people would go to pick up lovers (432). The implication is that Philomusus may provide sexual pleasure or entertainment, but is not loved.
7.77. Copies of books were expensive to make, and though Martial might offer them for free to generous patrons, he implies that Tucca wants to make money by reselling them.
7.78. Saxetanum was a town in southern Spain known for producing salted fish; lacerti were small fish (Shackleton Bailey 2:141n). One might expect a man who eats the tail of a small salted fish, accompanied by oiled beans if he is dining well, to be poor, yet Papylus sends luxury foods as gifts to others. He is being satirized as the worst sort of miser, who denies himself any pleasures while sending expensive gifts to others in the hope of receiving legacies or gifts from them. Shackleton Bailey explains that to “indulge one’s Genius” means to enjoy oneself, which Papylus is incapable of doing (2:141n).
7.79. Galán Vioque points out that “consular” usually referred to something from the Republican period, which would have made the wine quite old. Romans valued old wines highly, and tended to look down on new wines. The wine’s vintage was indicated by naming who was consul when it was produced (440–41). Martial is here using “consular” to mean “wine of a consul.” There had been three consuls named Priscus not long before this book was published in 92 CE (Shackleton Bailey 2:143n). Marcus Severus was a friend of Martial’s (3:382).
7.81. Lausus is a friend of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:363). Martial frequently feels a need to defend himself against the criticism that his work is uneven, as he does also in 1.16. In 7.90, on the other hand, he points out that consistency is not always a virtue.
7.83. Galán Vioque says that the Greek name Eutrapelus means “nimble,” but that this barber seems to be inordinately slow (453–54). An alternate explanation is that Lupercus is so hairy that the barber can’t keep up with his beard’s growth. The epigram literally says that the barber “paints” the cheeks of Lupercus, which could mean applying makeup (454), but could also refer to the ruddiness created by shaving.
7.85. Martial here, as in 7.81, refers to the difficulty of maintaining consistently high quality in a book of epigrams.
7.89. Domitius Appolinaris was a friend and patron of Martial (Shackleton Bailey 3:340), who here sends him a rose garland (customarily worn at banquets) as a gift. The poem expresses a wish for the long life of his patron (Galán Vioque 480).
7.90. This poem is addressed to Creticus, not mentioned elsewhere in Martial. Galán Vioque notes that creticus is the name of an unequal metrical foot, so the name may be intended as a pun (482).
7.91. The Juvenal addressed here was probably the satirist Decimus Junius Juvenalis, a friend of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:361). Galán Vioque notes that nuts were a common token gift for Saturnalia. Martial apologizes for the smallness of the gift by joking that the rest of the nuts from his farm were used by the orchard’s guardian god, Priapus, to bribe girls into having sex with him (484–85).
7.92. Martial is satirizing a patron who is all talk, no action. Baccara, to spare Martial’s dignity, offers to give him financial help whenever he needs it without Martial’s having to ask for it. Yet faced with several clear examples of Martial’s financial need, Baccara does nothing. Martial wishes a baleful star to strike Baccara dumb as fitting punishment for his empty words of support.
7.94. The mouth of Papylus smells so bad from performing oral sex that anything that comes near it is tainted by his smell. Garum, a fish sauce made from fermented carp entrails and gills, was widely used in Roman cooking and noted for its offensive odor (Galán Vioque 495–96).
8.1. As in book 5, Martial is flattering Emperor Domitian by complying with his expressed preference for moral writing. Martial also alludes here to Domitian’s veneration of Pallas Minerva, symbolizing wisdom, as opposed to sex, symbolized by Venus.
8.5. Macer’s gifts to his mistresses have impoverished him to the point that he no longer has the minimum qualification for knighthood of owning four hundred thousand sesterces (Galán Vioque 372). Senators, knights, and magistrates had the right to wear a gold ring (Shackleton Bailey 2:164n). Macer means “lean, meager,” so the name fits the character.
8.10. Tyrian purple was the most expensive color to produce.
8.12. Martial addresses more than one Priscus in his poems, so the identity of this one cannot be established (Shackleton Bailey 3:378), but it is probably one of his friends.
8.13. Martial implies that he wanted a foolish slave who would be tractable, but got one that was clever and therefore less desirable.
8.14. Boreas, the North Wind, is usually portrayed as being fierce and tough. Martial jokes that his unnamed host’s greenhouses would be more comfortable than his guest rooms.
8.16. Cyperus, who was a baker for a long time, became an advocate, earning a lot of money, but spending even more. Martial’s joke is that turning bread back into flour would make something valuable into something worth much less, just as Cyperus takes a lucrative job and then dissipates all his earnings (Shackleton Bailey 2:172n).
8.17. Martial here pretends that he has become a lawyer and has pled a case for Sextus, who underpays him when the case is lost. Martial hints that the facts of the case were so damning that it was better not to mention them (Shackleton Bailey 2:173n), implying that he blushed as a move to win sympathy.
8.18. Cerrinius is clearly a friend of Martial’s and probably one of his patrons. Martial’s praise of his unpublished epigrams and comparison of his modesty to Vergil’s unwillingness to compete with Horace in writing odes or with Varius in writing tragedy are elaborate compliments and should not be taken as a sincere estimate of the epigrams’ worth. Vergil’s full name was Publius Vergilius Maro (Shackleton Bailey 3:389); Horace, who lived in Calabria (2:173n), had the full name of Quintus Horatius Flaccus (3:355); Lucius Varius Rufus was a writer of tragedies during the time of Augustus (3:388). Buskins (cothurni in Latin) were boots worn by actors in tragedies and therefore an allusion to tragedy in general.
8.19. Because so many rich men would plead poverty to avoid financial obligations, Cinna hopes that by harping on his poverty he can be taken for a rich man, but his claimed poverty is no pretense (Shackleton Bailey 2:174n).
8.20. Martial loves the paradox by which someone can have a quality and its opposite at the same time. Here Varus is unwise to write so much bad poetry, but wise not to recite it in public. The name Varus means “contrary” in Latin, which suits such a contradictory character.
8.22. Wild boar would be a rarer, more expensive delicacy than pork; Martial implies that he can tell the difference between the two (Shackleton Bailey 2:175n), that he is no hybrid and neither is the pig.
8.23. The name Rusticus means “provincial, boorish” in Latin and therefore suits someone who questions his host’s behavior in a foolish way.
8.25. On the surface, Martial appears to be offering to comfort Oppianus often when he becomes ill, but the offer contains the implied hope that Oppianus will be ill often (Shackleton Bailey 2:177n). Martial may also intend to gloat when he visits.
8.27. Gaurus is one of many cases Martial mentions of rich men beset by legacy hunters, but he appears to be unaware of his visitors’ motives.
8.29. Martial suggests that no matter how short the individual poems may be, one still needs enough of them to fill a book and the book will still be as long as if the poems were long ones. He often seems to be responding defensively to readers who tell him that they like his shortest poems best.
8.31. Howell notes that Martial had asked for and received the Right of Three Children (ius trium liberorum) from Emperor Titus, and the grant was renewed under Domitian. The rights included the right to receive legacies (15–16). Since Martial does not seem to have married, the rights would have been a significant coup for him, but he makes fun of married men who seek the same privilege.
8.35. Martial plays on the irony of the couple’s not getting along despite being perfectly matched in awfulness.
8.40. Images of Priapus, the fertility god, were placed in gardens to guard them from theft. Here the image guarding a grove intended for firewood is itself made of wood and therefore may be burned if it fails to protect the grove (Shackleton Bailey 2:191n).
8.41. The Faustinus mentioned in this poem is the same friend and patron of Martial’s mentioned in several other poems (Shackleton Bailey 3:355). The gift exchange would have been during the Saturnalia, a seven-day festival that began on December 17 (3:381).
8.43. Martial implies that Fabius and Chrestilla tend to do away with their spouses soon after the wedding, presumably to inherit the spouse’s money. With poetic justice, he suggests that they should marry one another, so that both will be carried off at the same time by Libitina, the goddess of burials.
8.47. Martial seems to be satirizing an unduly elaborate treatment of facial hair.
8.51. Shackleton Bailey observes that any lover might see more in the beloved than is there, but the phrase “loves more than he sees” is literally true for a blind man (2:201n).
8.54. Though Shackleton Bailey emends vilissima to durissima and magis to minus, the unemended epigram makes sense if you assume that Martial is lamenting that a beautiful woman should be utterly shameless. The name he gives the woman, Catulla, would evoke for many readers the Lesbia of Catullus, just such a shameless beauty.
8.56. This sort of over-the-top praise of Domitian, a notably bad emperor, has earned Martial the disapproval of many, who assume that he is flattering the emperor to gain perks from him. In some poems Martial asks for specific benefits, but in many, as here, the praise is not tied to any particular request. By linking Domitian’s generosity to the people’s love, however, Martial is subtly encouraging more generosity. Spisak points out that such praise poems encourage behavior helpful to the community (54) by appealing to the desire of the rich and powerful to acquire a good reputation and to maintain it after their death (60).
8.60. The Palatine Colossus, originally a statue of Nero erected by his Golden House, was moved by Vespasian to the Via Sacra and converted into a statue of the Sun God, with a diadem of rays (Shackleton Bailey 1:13n). Martial frequently exaggerates physical features for humorous effect, and a towering woman is a funnier image than a giant man.
8.61. Like many of Martial’s other poems about his Nomentan farm, this one emphasizes the nuisances, rather than the pleasures, of ownership. Marcus Severus, to whom the poem is addressed, was a literary man and Martial’s friend (Shackleton Bailey 3:382). The bosses and cedar oil would have adorned Martial’s books, not Martial himself.
8.62. Papyrus was expensive, and Martial is satirizing a scrimping poet who tries to reuse old scrolls by writing on their backs. Apollo’s turning his back on Picens implies that the poet has no inspiration.
8.69. Martial often mentions earlier Latin poets with respect, especially Catullus, Vergil, Ovid, Horace, and Marsus, but he clearly found it annoying that earlier poets were valued far above living poets, such as himself.
8.76. Gallicus asks for truth and gets it, but not the “truth” he wanted. Rich patrons must often have asked Martial’s opinion on their writing and speaking abilities. In this epigram about an invented character, Martial can give the blunt answer he might have hesitated to give to an actual patron.
8.77. Martial’s friend Liber was a charioteer (Shackleton Bailey 3:363). Falernian is Martial’s usual choice to signify an excellent, expensive wine. The Assyrian cardamom oil is another luxury, which people would use to scent their hair at banquets.
8.79. Porticoes were covered walkways that functioned as popular meeting places, providing shelter from sun or rain. By surrounding herself with old and ugly friends, Fabulla makes herself look young and beautiful by comparison.
9.4. There are many possible reasons that Aeschylus might want to buy Galla’s silence, all of them embarrassing, such as impotence or fetishes. Leaving the possibilities open to the reader’s imagination makes them seem even more lurid than they would be if stated.
9.6. According to Henriksén, the pseudonym Afer, meaning “African,” may have been chosen because of its connection to Libya (42). Afer is clearly a patron, and as his client, the poet would be expected to visit him after his return. By remaining unavailable, the patron is causing considerable trouble to the client, who must keep returning. The final vale is a pun, meaning not only “goodbye,” but also “get lost,” and, because of its ritual use at funerals, “drop dead” (43).
9.8. Bithynicus has clearly been legacy hunting by giving six thousand sesterces a year to Fabius, only to learn that Fabius has died penniless. Martial advises him to look on the bright side: he won’t have to keep giving six thousand a year.
9.9. Cantharus makes himself an unwelcome dinner guest by his out-spoken abuse and bad manners. Martial warns him that he is unlikely to be invited to dinner if he doesn’t change his ways. Henriksén points out that the Greek name Cantharus is derived from the name of a drinking cup associated with Bacchus, the god of wine, and that drunkenness therefore may be the source of the character’s bad behavior (51). There is a complex pun in the term liber, which means “a free man,” “free speaking,” and “one of the names of Bacchus, the god of wine” (52). If Cantharus wants to eat and drink at his patron’s expense, he has to remember that he is dependent on the patron and cannot say whatever he wants.
9.10. The scenario in which a woman is eager to marry and a man isn’t comes up frequently in Martial’s epigrams. Here, the implication is that Paula is undesirable for an unnamed reason. Martial frequently writes about old women wanting to marry younger men, who would be tempted to marry them only for their money.
9.14. Parasites who constantly seek dinner invitations from people known for their lavish banquets are a common target of Martial’s. Martial frequently mentions boar, mullet, sow’s udder, and oysters as expensive and desirable dishes.
9.15. A typical tomb inscription, Chloe feci means “I, Chloe, put up [this tomb],” but could also mean “I, Chloe, did it” (Shackleton Bailey 2:244n).
9.19. Shackleton Bailey notes that “three hundred verses” implies just “a large number” (2:247n). Like the dinner seeker of 9.14, Sabellus uses flattery to deflect attention from what he is really after, a lavish meal. Ironically, as Hendriksén observes, Martial himself had written a rather long poem, 6.42, in praise of the baths of Claudius Etruscus (86).
9.21. Pompeius Auctus was a legal expert and an admirer of Martial’s work (Shackleton Bailey 3:377). He is being asked to determine which of the two men got the better end of the exchange. Martial is here punning on the erotic symbolism of “plowing” in the closeness of amat (he loves) to arat (he plows).
9.25. Hyllus is clearly not just any page, but Afer’s catamite, whom he watches jealously when others show attention to him. A Gorgon was a monster who turned to stone anyone who looked at her. Hylas was a boy loved by Hercules (Alcides), and Ganymede was a boy loved by Jupiter. Oedipus blinded himself after discovering his wife was actually his mother, and Phineus was a blind seer in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. When Martial mentions looking at gods, right after mentioning temples, he means the statues of gods that would be in the temples (Henriksén 108).
9.32. Martial expresses a preference for a common prostitute over a grasping courtesan or stuck-up Roman woman (Henriksén 143). Burdigala, meaning “from Bordeaux,” is the kind of rich but stupid provincial that Martial suggests such a woman will have to settle for. The prostitute is portrayed as walking around in a cloak, possibly wearing little or nothing under it. According to Henriksén, one denarius (equal to ten asses) was a reasonable fee for a prostitute, and two would not be expensive, especially if anything more than standard sex was involved (145–46).
9.33. Flaccus was a rich friend of Martial’s, to whom many of his epigrams are addressed (Shackleton Bailey 3:355). Since people bathed naked, some ogling would have occurred (and Martial often implies that that is the case), but the applause is almost certainly an exaggeration for humorous effect. Henriksén notes that it cannot be an accident that the last names of Horace (Flaccus) and Vergil (Maro) appear together here (148–49). The applause mentioned may be an indirect compliment to the authors, but the sexual subtext clearly adds a note of satire, too.
9.40. The Tarpeian wreath was the prize in the Capitoline poetry contest (Shackleton Bailey 2:267n). Pharos is an island offshore from Alexandria in Egypt. Sabine women were renowned for their virtue. That a woman who is not a debased prostitute should volunteer to perform fellatio on her man if he returns safely is presented as a sign of her anxiety for his welfare, but also of her naïveté.
9.44. According to Shackleton Bailey, this poem concerns a statuette of Hercules owned by the poet Novius Vindex and written about by both Martial and Statius. The statuette was supposedly made by Lysippus for Alexander the Great (2:270n). By pretending to think it was made instead by Phidias, whom Martial consistently mentions as one of the greatest Greek artists (Henriksén 200), Martial is complimenting the statuette. For a poet not to know Greek would have been extremely embarrassing (199). Here Martial pretends ignorance partly to turn the joke on himself and partly to set up the compliment.
9.50. Martial compares his poems to two famous bronze statuettes that were acknowledged masterpieces: Brutus’ boy, a statuette by Strongylion that was a favorite of Brutus the Tyrannicide, and Langon, a statuette of a boy by Lyciscus (Henriksén 222–23). The Greek name Gaurus means “haughty, disdainful” (219), which fits the attitude of the poet described in this epigram.
9.52. Quintus Ovidius, one of Martial’s best friends, had a farm next to his in Nomentum. Martial alludes to the custom of using a white pebble to mark an especially fortunate day on the calendar (Henriksén 229).
9.53. This poem is also addressed to Quintus Ovidius, a close friend of Martial’s who is mentioned in 9.52 and in several other poems (Shackleton Bailey 3:372). He was a close enough friend that he would not be offended by the joking reference to his imperiousness or the suggestion that he give Martial a gift instead of receiving one from him.
9.60. Henriksén notes that floral garlands were common gifts between friends; the recipient, Caesius Sabinus, was mentioned as well in several other epigrams of Martial’s. Paestum, Praeneste, and Campania were all famous for their roses, and Tusculum for its violets, whereas Martial frequently complains of the meager output of his farm at Nomentum. Nevertheless, he suggests that the gift will seem more personal if Sabinus thinks the flowers come from his own garden than if they were bought from a more prestigious source (256–57).
9.62. Henriksén comments that Tyrian purple dye was very expensive, so purple garments were often worn to show off one’s wealth. The dye, however, also had a strong odor, which is here used to mask the nasty smell of Philaenis herself, possibly from incontinence (268–69).
9.63. There are several possible meanings of “fed by a cock” in this epigram. Martial suggests that Phoebus is invited to dinner by effeminate men in return for participating in sex with them. He is thus fed by his own cock, but may also, as Henriksén notes, be performing fellatio or being buggered, which were considered unclean, or buggering adult men, which was also looked down on (270).
9.66. As in his epigram 8.31, Martial is making fun of married men who petition Caesar for the Right of Three Children, when they should be able to beget children on their own. Martial implies that such a man must be impotent.
9.67. The “boy way” is anal intercourse; the next thing he asks for is fellatio, which was considered an act that defiled those who performed it. Since the girl is still pure as far as Martial is concerned, that implies that he does not follow through because of the condition she demands. A. E. Housman suggested that the girl demands that Martial perform oral sex on her in return; whereas Martial finds the condition to be outrageous and refuses, he implies that Aeschylus would not refuse it (cited in Henriksén 282).
9.69. Though the epigram is posed as a riddle, Henriksén suggests that the first line gives the answer to the second: that the cock of the sodomizer will be fouled by shit (290).
9.74. Henriksén notes that in epigram 6.85 Martial had stated that Camonius Rufus of Bononia (now Bologna) was a friend of his and knew many of his poems by heart. That poem mourned the early death of his friend in Cappadocia (305). In this epigram Martial alludes to the only portrait of his friend being from childhood, suggesting that the father of Camonius had avoided having a portrait made before the son left, either because it would distress him to be reminded of his son’s absence or because he had a superstitious fear that the speechless image might foreshadow the speechlessness of death. The Roman custom of preserving busts of ancestors might reinforce the association of portraits with death.
9.78. The suggestion is that Galla poisoned her first seven husbands, but has now married a poisoner who will do the same to her (Shackleton Bailey 2:301n).
9.80. Martial implies that the old woman is so desperate for a husband that she is willing to perform oral sex on him, and he is so desperate for money that he is willing to fuck an old woman.
9.81. Aulus Pudens was a friend of Martial’s and is addressed often in his epigrams (Shackleton Bailey 3:378). Martial often writes poems defending his writing against critics of various sorts, as in 9.50.
9.82. As Shackleton Bailey notes, Martial here puns on two meanings of perire, which could mean both “to die” and “to be ruined” (2:304). Munna thinks his death is predicted and spends all of his money, only to learn that he has caused his own financial ruin.
9.83. All reading was done aloud, but Martial is here satirizing those who recited their poetry to others; while they are watching shows in the arena, they are at least not boring their listeners (Shackleton Bailey 2:304n).
9.85. The Atilius mentioned here may be Atilius Crescens, who is mentioned as a man of letters by Pliny (Henriksén 334). Paulus pretends to be ill to get out of hosting a dinner, but Martial complains to Atilius, another friend of Paulus, that though the illness is fake, the dinner is dead. An ill man might be expected to fast (as in “feed a cold, starve a fever”), but Paulus makes his guests fast instead.
9.87. The wine Martial says he is drinking, Opimian, was proverbial as being one of the best vintages, though Henriksén suggests that there was little, if any, Opimian left in Martial’s day, because the vintage it signified dated from 121 BCE (342). Martial hints that Lupercus is trying to take advantage of Martial’s drunkenness by getting Martial to put his seal on a legal document that may be something other than what Lupercus says it is. By sealing the flask instead, Martial is signaling that he has drunk enough for one night. The practice also prevents servants from stealing wine (Shackleton Bailey 2:308n).
9.88. Martial describes a frequent practice of sending gifts to wealthy people in the hope of getting legacies from them. Here he implies that after the will is written, the gifts stop, but he reminds Rufus that one can change one’s will.
9.89. Lucius Arruntius Stella was a friend and patron of Martial’s and is mentioned in a number of his epigrams (Shackleton Bailey 3:383). Here he seems to have required Martial, as a dinner guest, to improvise verses on the spot. When Martial complains that improvising is too difficult, he is told that the verses needn’t be good ones.
9.91. This epigram is an elaborate compliment to Domitian, implying that Martial would rather be his guest than the guest of Jupiter himself. Henriksén argues that the epigram was probably written to commemorate the completion of Domitian’s new dining room in 94 CE, but the poem does not necessarily imply that Martial was invited to dinner there (353–54).
9.96. In epigram 6.78, Martial mentions a doctor ordering a patient to stop drinking in order to save his eyesight. Here, the doctor, caught stealing a wine ladle, pretends that he is doing it to protect his patient’s health.
9.100. Although three denarii is almost twice the normal dole for a client (Shackleton Bailey 2:319n), the duties that Martial is expected to perform in return are so onerous that he does not think the extra money to be worth the bother.
9.102. Martial frequently writes about loans of money from wealthy men to those with less money. According to Henriksén, though it was assumed that such loans would be repaid, Martial often takes the humorous position that the wealthy can afford to lose the money and that paying it back is therefore a sign of virtue (415). Here Martial makes fun of a lender who tries to make canceling a bad debt look like a generous gift; he suggests that a true gift would be to offer another loan, knowing it too would not be repaid (413).
10.1. The tenth book is a revised and enlarged edition (Shackleton Bailey 2:325n). Martial often mentions readers who complain about the length of his poems or books.
10.8. As in many other epigrams of Martial’s, the joke here is that old women want husbands, but that men would only marry an old woman if she were wealthy and likely to die soon.
10.9. Poetry of eleven syllables per line is hendecasyllabics, one of Martial’s common forms. His most common form, elegiacs, is what he means by “poetry of eleven feet,” because it is organized into alternating lines of dactylic hexameter (six feet) and dactylic pentameter (five feet). Martial’s comparison of his own fame to the racehorse’s is typical of his self-deprecating humor.
10.16. Martial suggests that the archery mishap was no accident, but meant to dispose of the wife while retaining her dowry.
10.21. Modestus and Claranus are clearly scholarly commentators on literary texts, and Sextus, by writing so obscurely, is out to stump them. Shackleton Bailey suggests that the books of Sextus need Apollo because “they are as obscure as Delphic oracles” (2:345n). The poet C. Helvius Cinna wrote his Smyrna in an elaborate style, full of obscure allusions that would need explication (3:348). Martial implies that only someone as wrongheaded as Sextus could consider Cinna a greater writer than Vergil.
10.22. White lead and medicinal pastes were used to treat various ailments, but Martial here claims to use them when he is healthy as a way of keeping his distance from one he would rather not kiss (the implication, as usual, is that the one he would avoid performs oral sex).
10.23. Marcus Antonius Primus of Tolosa (now Toulouse) was a friend of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:340). Fifteen Olympiads equals seventy-five years (2:345n).
10.27. Shackleton Bailey points out that thirty sesterces is four to five times the normal dole (2:349n). The last line of the epigram says literally “Yet nobody thinks you were born, Diodorus” (2:349). Diodorus is a nouveauriche nobody who thinks he is important because patricians attend his lavish parties.
10.29. Martial often mentions that the Kalends of March (March 1) is his birthday. It was also the day on which gifts were customarily given to women (Shackleton Bailey 2:346n). Martial expected a gift of a toga, but Sextilianus gives a dining outfit to his mistress instead.
10.31. Mullet were an expensive fish in ancient Rome, and the larger they were, the more expensive they were. Shackleton Bailey notes that Martial puns on two meanings of “dining well”: Calliodorus dines lavishly, but his actions are morally repugnant (2:353n).
10.32. Caedicianus is mentioned four times by Martial as being a friend of his (Shackleton Bailey 3:344). Marcus Antonius Primus is also mentioned in 10.23.
10.39. Shackleton Bailey identifies the Brutus mentioned here as Lucius Junius Brutus (3:344), who became consul in 509 BCE. That would make Lesbia close to six hundred years old. Martial goes on to even greater absurdities for comic effect. Numa Pompilius (753–673 BCE) was the second king of Rome (after Romulus), and Prometheus was the creator of humankind, whom he molded from clay.
10.40. Friendships between a wife or mistress and a male concubine were often suspected of leading to infidelity precisely because the effeminacy of the male concubine would be good cover for an affair (Shackleton Bailey 2:363n).
10.43. Martial’s joke has several meanings: first, that to lose one wife is lucky, but to lose seven of them is extraordinarily fortunate; second, that each wife would be bringing a dowry with her, so the death of each allows Phileros to acquire another dowry; and third, that no crop Phileros could grow on the land could possibly produce as much income as he gets from his wives’ deaths. Sullivan notes that the Greek name Phileros means “fond of love,” an appropriate name for one who had found it to be so lucrative (246).
10.44. Scotland was known as Caledonia to the Romans. Atropos, one of the three Fates, is the one who cuts the life thread. Quintus Ovidius, mentioned also in other epigrams such as 1.105, was a close friend who owned property near Martial’s Nomentan farm.
10.45. Laurentum, a town on the coast of Latium, is the source of the boar (Shackleton Bailey 3:362). Vatican wine had a very low reputation (3:388).
10.47. Lucius Julius Martialis was Martial’s closest friend, a lawyer who owned a small estate on the Janiculum, a hill across the Tiber from Rome (Sullivan 17). Martial desires the strength that would be appropriate for a gentleman, Shackleton Bailey observes, not for an athlete or laborer (2:368n). This poem is the most often translated of all of Martial’s epigrams (Sullivan 50).
10.49. Opimian wine was an extremely old and famous vintage, dating from 121 BCE, when Opimius was consul (Shackleton Bailey 1:61n). Though there was probably not much left of it by Martial’s day, he uses the term to denote excellent old wine. Sabine wine was cheap and young (2:371n).
10.52. Shackleton Bailey notes that the toga, which was worn on formal occasions by men, was also the garb that prostitutes and women convicted of adultery were forced to wear, by law, to differentiate them from respectable women. The eunuch Thelys is so effeminate that when he wears a toga he looks like an adulteress, not like a man. The joke may also imply that Thelys is guilty of having sexual contact with someone’s wife, but isn’t manly enough to be called an adulterer (2:375n).
10.53. Scorpus was a famous chariot racer who is mentioned repeatedly in Martial’s epigrams (Shackleton Bailey 3:381). This poem is presented as if it were his epitaph.
10.54. Beautifully inlaid tables are frequently mentioned by Martial as a luxury item of the wealthy, doubtless to be displayed at dinner parties. Here he focuses on the absurdity of owning such tables and then covering them up with tablecloths.
10.59. In several other poems (such as 1.110 and 3.83) Martial complains about readers who like his short poems more than his longer ones. However, as he points out in 8.29, it is hard to fill a book if all of your poems are short ones. Here he compares a book to a meal, saying it can’t all be tasty morsels; there needs to be some bread as well.
10.61. This poem is in the form of an epitaph, such as Martial might have written for the tomb of his slave girl Erotion, whose death he mourns in 5.34. He here invokes a blessing on anyone who will continue to make offerings to the spirit of the dead girl when he is no longer around to do so.
10.64. This poem is addressed to Argentaria Polla, the widow of the poet Lucan and one of Martial’s earliest (Sullivan 317) and most generous patrons (102). The poem concerns her husband, author of an epic on the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and cites a line of his that may have come from an epigram that has not survived (Shackleton Bailey 2:383n). Helicon, a mountain in Greece associated with the Muses, is symbolic of poetic achievement, though “our Helicon” refers to the achievement of Latin poets. Literally, the last line of the Latin is “If I’m not even sodomized, Cotta, what am I doing here?” (2:383).
10.65. The Tagus is a river in Spain, a tributary of which, the Tagonius, flowed near Martial’s home of Bilbilis (Sullivan 177). Corinth is in Greece. Martial claims to be descended from the Celts and Iberians who populated northeastern Spain. Iberians were noted for hairiness (172). Silia is Shackleton Bailey’s suggested replacement for filia in the text; he assumes that it refers to a loud-voiced woman (2:385n).
10.66. Martial appears to be writing about the same boy, though unnamed, in epigram 12.64. Ganymede was a beautiful Trojan prince whom Jupiter abducted to be his cupbearer and catamite.
10.74. Shackleton Bailey notes that the plains of Apulia were famous for their wool (2:393n). Hybla was likewise noted for its honey, and much of the wheat consumed in Rome grew in the Nile region. Setia produced a famous wine, mentioned in many of Martial’s epigrams. Scorpus was a famous charioteer whose death had already been the subject of Martial’s elegy in 10.53, so it is not surprising that Martial does not want the wins of Scorpus at the price of an early death, but merely wants to be able to sleep late instead of spending his mornings visiting a series of patrons. The poem also looks forward to Martial’s announcement at the end of book 10 that he plans to retire to his childhood home of Bilbilis in Hispania.
10.77. Martial suggests that the fever, which was also naughty, should have been a quartan fever, a malarial fever that returns every four days, instead of such a deadly fever that it killed Carus at once. The desire to see Carus under a doctor’s care is not meant kindly, since Martial consistently portrays medical care as being a fate worse than death.
10.80. Eros, named after the Greek god of love, is probably a freedman, judging from his Greek name; it suits him because he desires everything he sees. The Saepta Julia (“the Enclosure”) was located in the Campus Martius and contained shops (Shackleton Bailey 1:144–45n). Speckled murrine cups were carved from a semiprecious stone and were quite expensive. Fancy tabletops of citrus wood were also a luxury item, as were handsome slave boys.
10.81. Phyllis, whose Greek name suggests that she is a prostitute, takes on two customers at once by being sodomized by one while being fucked by the other.
10.84. This poem is addressed to Caedicianus, a friend of Martial’s, possibly fictitious (Shackleton Bailey 3:344). Shackleton Bailey observes that there are two possible interpretations of the epigram: that the woman next to Afer at dinner is beautiful and he doesn’t want to leave her, or that she is ugly and he doesn’t want to go to bed with her (2:401n).
10.90. Ligeia is one of many lustful old women satirized by Martial. Depilation of pubic hair was considered attractive in young women.
10.91. Martial suggests that Almo is foolish to expect his wife Polla to have children when he himself is impotent and his male slaves are all eunuchs; if they weren’t eunuchs, Martial implies, she would be having sex with them.
10.94. The “serpent of Numidia” is an allusion to the giant snake that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides (Shackleton Bailey 2:411n). The gardens of Alcinous, described in The Odyssey, produced luscious fruit at all seasons. Martial jokes that the apples grown on his farm are too poor to steal or to give as a gift, so he has bought his gift of apples in the Subura, a bustling shopping district in Rome, not where they were actually grown.
10.95. Though the Latin does not include an equivalent for “What did you do?” the reader is meant to pick up the implication that the sex Galla had with her husband and lover did not include intercourse, and that she was cheating on both with someone else.
10.97. Myrrh and cassia (an aromatic bark resembling cinnamon) would be thrown on the pyre as it burned (Shackleton Bailey 2:413n).
10.100. Ladas was a famous Olympic runner (Shackleton Bailey 3:362). Martial frequently complains that others try to claim his own poems as theirs. Here he suggests that the difference between Martial’s poems and the plagiarist’s is obvious.
10.102. This poem is addressed to Lucius Stertinius Avitus, a friend and patron of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:384). As in 10.100, Martial is attacking those who pass off the poems of others as their own.
11.13. Kay notes that in 82 or 83 CE, Paris, a celebrated and handsome pantomime, had been murdered on the orders of Emperor Domitian, who suspected him of having an affair with Domitian’s wife, Domitia Longina. Domitian also executed those who openly mourned the death of Paris, so this epitaph could not be published until after Domitian’s death in 96 CE (94). Literally, the poem states that all of the Venuses and Cupids are buried with Paris.
11.14. Shackleton Bailey points out that “may the earth be light on you” was part of the standard prayer for the dead, but that plowing, digging, and carrying soil was hard work for a farmer and would have been particularly onerous for a man of small stature (3:319).
11.15. This poem is addressed to Domitius Apollinaris, a friend and patron of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:340). Cato the Younger was famous for his stringent moral standards, attributes that would be expected, as well, of his wife, since women were expected to be more prudish than men; the Sabine women were often mentioned as models of morality. Cosmus is mentioned often by Martial as a seller of perfumed ointments to be used on the hair. The word mentula was considered obscene, but Martial justifies it by pointing to the ancient precedent of Numa, the legendary second king of Rome. The winter holiday of the Saturnalia was a time of partying and license, so Martial uses the time of this book’s publication to justify the inclusion of a larger number of obscene poems than usual (Kay 71). Sullivan argues that the greater incidence of obscene poems in the book is due to the replacement of Emperor Domitian by Nerva, whom Martial considered to be more tolerant because Nerva had written erotic elegies himself (47).
11.17. The addressee, Caesius Sabinus, was a friend of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:345).
11.19. Galla is diserta, meaning “eloquent.” Martial states that his cock often commits solecisms, implying that an eloquent wife would comment upon them. In short, he does not want a wife who would criticize either his grammar or his sexual conduct.
11.25. Martial implies that the overactive sex life of Linus has left him impotent, but rather than give up sex entirely, Linus will resort to cunnilingus (always considered a shameful activity by the Romans).
11.28. Hylas was a beautiful page whom Hercules loved. The name would therefore be appropriate for a catamite. Here Martial suggests that the madman’s rape of the attractive catamite of Doctor Euctus is proof that the patient was actually sane.
11.29. Lustful old women who have to buy sex from men are a favorite target of Martial’s. Kay notes that Setine land was not far from Rome and was famous for producing excellent wine (136). The scenario described here is probably invented by Martial, like the scenarios in which he claims to have a wife.
11.30. When Zoilus says that lawyers and poets have bad breath, he seems to imply that it is acquired by speaking at length (Shackleton Bailey 3:29n). Martial returns the insult by implying that Zoilus has bad breath from performing fellatio.
11.34. The mystery of why Aper would buy an old hovel is solved when one hears that it is next to a splendid estate and that Aper expects to be invited to dine there.
11.35. “Three hundred” is a typical exaggeration for effect, meant to suggest a large number. Martial ironically implies that dining with large numbers of people he doesn’t know is dining alone. The name Fabullus here may have been suggested by poem 13 of Catullus, in which he invites his friend Fabullus to dinner.
11.37. Martial hints that the rings that recently adorned the shins of Zoilus were the shackles of a slave, which makes his current show of wealth more unsuitable.
11.38. Kay argues that twenty thousand sesterces was an unusually high price for an unskilled slave (152–53). A deaf driver of a carriage, however, would be desirable because he could not overhear the conversations of the occupants (Shackleton Bailey 3:35n). The Aulus addressed here is Martial’s friend Aulus Pudens (3:378).
11.40. Glycera is a common name for a prostitute (Kay 157); in this poem it is clear that she is a private mistress to Lupercus. Though Lupercus tells Aelianus he has not fucked her for a month, his explanation makes clear that he actually uses her only for oral sex.
11.42. Hybla in Sicily (Shackleton Bailey 3:359) and Mount Hymettus in Greece (3:360) were both known for producing excellent honey, whereas the honey of Corsica was inferior (3:39n). Cecropian refers to King Cecrops of Attica, Greece (3:347). Kay hypothesizes that Martial was asked to extemporize verses (160–61).
11.43. Martial is here pretending to have a wife for the sake of arguing with her about whether a wife can take the place of boys in her husband’s sex life if she agrees to let him sodomize her. Using classical precedents of gods and heroes who slept with both women and boys, Martial proves that boys are preferred for sodomy. Jove (here called the Thunderer), married Juno and abducted the Trojan prince Ganymede to be his cupbearer and catamite. Hercules (born in Tiryns) married Megara, but also had sex with his pageboy Hylas. Phoebus unsuccessfully pursued Daphne, who turned into a tree to escape him, but he then fell in love with a Spartan boy, Hyacinthus, referred to as Oebalian (after Oebalius, a Spartan king who in some accounts was the father of Hyacinthus) (Shackleton Bailey 3:41n). In The Iliad, the hero Achilles, the grandson of Aeacus, is in love with his slave girl Briseis, but later traditions also portrayed him as being the lover of his friend Patroclus.
11.44. Martial says that the addressee of this poem was born when Lucius Junius Brutus was the Republic’s first consul, circa 509 BCE (Kay 166). It is an obvious exaggeration for comic effect. As he often does, Martial here implies that legacy hunters would befriend rich old people without heirs, hoping to inherit their money.
11.45. Kay notes that brothels had cubicles that might be labeled with the name, sexual specialty, or price of the prostitute within, who could be male or female. The poem implies that Cantharus must be interested in oral sex or being buggered, since he is so eager to hide what he is doing (166–67).
11.46. Kay points out that this is one of several Martial epigrams (including 3.75 and 4.50) that suggest that fellatio is the best treatment for impotence in old men (170). He also suggests that Mevius may still be able to ejaculate (instead of just pissing) but cannot maintain an erection sufficient for sex or sodomy (169).
11.47. According to Kay, Pompey’s portico was a spot frequented by prostitutes; prostitutes also were to be found at the temple of Isis, an Egyptian goddess identified with Io, the daughter of Inachus (171). Spartan wrestlers smeared their bodies with ceroma, “a muddy substance containing oil, coating the floor of a wrestling ring” (Shackleton Bailey 1:292n). The humor of the poem lies in the contrast between Lattara’s seeming manliness, misogyny, and avoidance of sex and his actual performance of cunnilingus, which was considered shameful and effeminate. Kay observes that athletes would traditionally avoid sex so as not to weaken themselves competitively (172).
11.50. Silius Italicus was a consul under Nero in 68 CE and the author of Punica, a Latin epic on the Second Punic War (Shackleton Bailey 3:383). According to Pliny the Younger, Silius bought the rundown tomb of Vergil near Naples, which he restored and treated as a shrine (Epistles 3.7, cited in Kay 174). Posterity is far from considering Silius to be the poetic equal of Vergil, so Martial is exaggerating his talent as a compliment to a patron.
11.51. Lampsacus was a city on the Hellespont that was famous for its cult of Priapus, the fertility god endowed with a giant penis (Kay 102).
11.57. Marcus Severus was a literary man and a friend of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:382). Martial is affecting embarrassment at sending a poem to a man who is a poet himself and is flattering him by comparing him to Jove. The ending literally says “If you don’t want what you already have, what then will you accept?” (3:53).
11.60. Chione (Greek for “snowy”) and Phlogis (Greek for “fiery”) would both be prostitutes (Shackleton Bailey 3:55n). Both Priam and Pelias were known for living to be quite old. Aluta means “soft leather” and is here used to signify a limp penis (Kay 202). Shackleton Bailey mentions that Criton (a Greek name that suggests a male physician) has the kind of cure that Phlogis needs (i.e., sex), which Hygia (either the goddess of health or a female doctor) could not provide (3:55n). Martial is making one of his frequent jokes about male doctors having sex with female patients.
11.62. Lesbia’s attempt to boast that she is in such demand that she never gives sex away is confirmed by Martial, but in a way she didn’t intend. She never is fucked for free because she always has to pay, implying that she is old or ugly or both.
11.63. Philomusus is making insinuations about Martial’s apparent preference for well-endowed catamites. Since a large penis would be moot in a boy who would be sodomized, he is suggesting that Martial prefers the passive role in sex (which was considered shameful among Roman men). According to Kay, Martial implies that just as the well-endowed statues of Priapus were meant to punish thieves in a garden by sodomizing them, so his well-endowed boys will punish Philomusus for asking nosy questions (209).
11.64. Faustus apparently boasts of writing to many girls, probably implying that he is propositioning them. Martial deflates him with the response that the girls don’t write back. Kay notes that the Latin name Faustus, meaning lucky, is ironic in the context of this epigram (210).
11.66. Kay observes that all of the activities described could be lucrative, but were considered discreditable. Paid political informers had done well under Domitian, but were being punished under Nerva. The slanderers operated in the legal system; a negotiator could be either a pimp or a small trader. A lanista trained gladiators. The Latin name Vacerra means “a log or post” and implies that he is too stupid to make money from even the most lucrative activities (212–13).
11.67. Martial illustrates the strained relationship between a stingy rich man who encourages a legacy hunter without giving him anything and the legacy hunter (here Martial himself ) who eagerly hopes for the death of the man in order to gain something for his attentions.
11.68. As someone who often asked for favors from important men, Martial himself would have had experience with the shame of being turned down.
11.71. The name Leda was probably chosen for the wife because the Leda of myth also made her husband a cuckold, though, in that case, because she was raped by Jove. The Leda of this epigram is feigning hysteria to induce her impotent old husband to allow her to sleep with others as “therapy.” According to Kay, Roman medicine did hold that hysteria was caused by lack of sex (222–23). Female doctors were common because male doctors were often rumored to have sex with female patients (224).
11.72. Literally the second line says “compared to him Priapus is a eunuch.” Priapus, the guardian god of gardens, is always portrayed as having a giant penis. Kay argues that Natta’s calling the athlete’s cock by a child’s word for “penis” and being attracted by its size suggest that Natta is a fellator (224).
11.75. Kay points out that both singers and athletes would often wear a fibula, an iron ring, on their foreskin to prevent or discourage sex, with the goal of preserving their voice or athletic prowess (229). Since Caelia’s slave does not appear to be a singer, the fibula (which seems to be hiding the whole penis in this case) suggests that she is too modest to look at a penis. But if she is in public baths with other men, that seems to imply that she thinks they don’t have penises worth looking at. Martial suggests that she is actually hiding her slave’s attractions from the public and that she may be sleeping with him herself. To prove that she isn’t begrudging the others from ogling the slave, she must expose him to view.
11.76. Paetus, who has loaned Martial ten thousand sesterces and Bucco two hundred thousand, uses Bucco’s default as an excuse to call in his smaller loan to Martial. Martial jokes that he shouldn’t be made to pay for someone else’s misdeeds; if Paetus can afford to lose two hundred thousand, he can afford to lose another ten thousand.
11.77. Vacerra sits in public toilets all over town in the hope of meeting someone who will invite him to dinner. The implication is that he cannot afford to feed himself, like Philo in Martial’s 5.47. Because the privies were large rooms with many-holed benches, they were places where one would tend to meet others.
11.79. Martial has reached the first milestone at the tenth hour and is therefore an hour late to dinner (Shackleton Bailey 3:67n) Accused of arriving late because of laziness, he counters that the mules that pulled the carriage Paetus sent to bring him to dinner were the cause of his lateness. Though it might seem cheeky to blame his host, Martial is trying to amuse through a surprising response and the resourcefulness of his blame-passing.
11.81. Kay observes that the Greek name Aegle, meaning “splendor,” would be suitable for a prostitute (239) and that Dindymus is a suitable name for a eunuch (239) because it is the name of a mountain associated with the cult of Cybele, whose priests were eunuchs (74). The girl is lying in bed between a eunuch and an old man, neither of whom is capable of sex, though both keep trying. She therefore calls on Venus to solve the problems of all three by giving the two men what they lack.
11.83. Sosibianus makes his profit when his “guests” die and leave him all their money (Shackleton Bailey 3:71n).
11.85. Literally, Zoilus has been struck “by a star” (Shackleton Bailey 3:73n). According to Kay, the Romans believed that the influence of the stars and planets could cause paralysis (246). Because his tongue has been paralyzed, Zoilus will be forced to abandon cunnilingus (considered a shameful practice by the Romans) for conventional intercourse.
11.86. Parthenopaeus was a common name for a slave (Kay 247). The treatment of his cough is so appealing that the slave has no desire to recover.
11.87. Charidemus, who prefers sodomy, is forced by poverty to court old women in order to support himself. Martial typically presents sex with an old woman as a fate worse than death.
11.88. Carisianus unintentionally reveals that he allows himself to be sodomized when he says that diarrhea is keeping him from sodomizing (Shackleton Bailey 3:73n). Though to sodomize was not considered objectionable, to be penetrated was always shameful for a man. Because he is the addressee of the poem and not its target, the Lupus mentioned here is probably a friend of Martial’s (Kay 249).
11.89. Floral garlands were a common gift between friends (as in 9.60) or lovers (Kay 249). Here Martial implies that the fact that the garland had rested on Polla’s head first would make it dearer than an untouched garland.
11.92. Martial consistently uses the name Zoilus for an evil person.
11.93. As Kay points out, the melodramatic and high-flown language is exaggerated for ironic effect; the poet’s name, which means “God’s gift,” is clearly sarcastic (257).
11.96. The fountain is a pool fed by the Marcian aqueduct (Shackleton Bailey 3:78n). Martial implies that, though both are slaves, the “citizen” page should have precedence over the adult German conquered in foreign wars (3:79n). Both dislike of foreigners and sexual interest in the boy may have played a role in Martial’s response.
11.97. This poem could be a sexual boast combined with an insult to an unappealing woman, or a case of blame-passing for impotence, as in 6.23. Kay mentions that the Greek name Telesilla (which means “little fulfillment”) may suggest that the woman is no good in bed (264).
11.99. The Symplegades, also known as the Cyanean Rocks, were two legendary rocks at the entrance to the Black Sea, which would clash together, destroying any ship that tried to pass between them (Shackleton Bailey 3:350).
11.101. Kay observes that Thais, the name of a famous courtesan of Alexander the Great, was in frequent use for prostitutes. Exaggerated comparisons making fun of thinness were common among Greek writers (272). Flaccus, a wealthy friend of Martial’s, is often addressed in his epigrams (Shackleton Bailey 3:355).
11.102. Aediles were officials who were charged with reporting all prodigies (Shackleton Bailey 3:83n).
11.103. The Safronius mentioned here is Safronius Rufus of 4.71 (Shackleton Bailey 3:380). He must have been a close enough friend of Martial’s to be willing to take good-natured ribbing, since Martial uses pseudonyms for his less flattering attacks (Kay 276).
11.105. Though only the weight and not the nature of the gift is specified, Kay hypothesizes that the gift was probably an item made of silver, due to the similarity of this epigram to others that describe gifts of silver by weight (283–84). Shackleton Bailey notes that the joke is based on the assumption that previous gifts have created an expectation that Garricus “owes” at least as much in subsequent gifts (3:87n).
11.106. Vibius Maximus was a high-ranking military officer (Shackleton Bailey 3:389), who later became the governor of Egypt (Kay 284–85). Martial shows his self-deprecating humor by implying that his poem isn’t worth reading, while gently poking fun at a man too busy to read a short epigram.
11.108. Martial is reminding his readers that he has bills to pay and that if they want more poems from him, they need to help him financially. As Kay points out, the Latin name Lupus (meaning “wolf ”) is an appropriate name for an insistent creditor. This reminder of financial obligation on the part of readers might fit someone whom Martial has flattered in his poems, but is humorously inappropriate when directed at readers in general (286).
12.7. This epigram, like 11.101, belongs to the tradition of humor through exaggerated comparisons and ridicule of unattractive physical features.
12.9. Cornelius Palma was consul in 99 CE (Shackleton Bailey 3:372). Trajan, who had been born in Italica, near what is now Seville, had become emperor in January 98 CE (3:97–98n). Around 98 CE, Martial returned to his hometown of Bilbilis in northeastern Spain, where he spent the rest of his life (Howell, Martial 26).
12.10. Martial focuses on the irony that Africanus, who owns a hundred million already, is still looking for more in the form of legacies from others.
12.12. This epigram suggests a solution to a situation Martial must often have encountered, in which people make generous promises to him when they are drunk that they “forget” once they are sober.
12.13. Because Martial was dependent on the generosity of rich men, he must have suffered often from their caprices and piques. This poem is addressed to Pompeius Auctus, a legal expert and friend of Martial’s (Shackleton Bailey 3:377).
12.16. The slaves Labienus bought are catamites, so Martial is using “plow” in a sexual sense.
12.17. The name Dama was often used for slaves (Shackleton Bailey 3:351), so in this poem it suggests a slave or poor freedman (3:103n). The wines named in this poem are all excellent ones, and the foods are also luxury items.
12.18. The Juvenal mentioned here is probably Decimus Junius Juvenalis, the famous satirist, who was Martial’s friend (Shackleton Bailey 3:361). Martial seems to be reminding Juvenal of the onerous duties of visiting patrons in order to contrast them with the pleasures of his rustic life of retirement in Bilbilis in northeastern Spain, the town of his birth, which was populated by Celtiberians (Spanish Celts). The Subura was a bustling section of Rome. Diana’s hill is the Aventine, which had a temple to Diana (3:105n). Boterdus was a sacred wood near Bilbilis (3:343), and Platea was another local place (3:376).
12.20. Martial is using “has” to mean “has sex with” (Shackleton Bailey 3:107n).
12.22. Physical defects are frequent targets of Martial’s humor.
12.23. As in 12.22, 3.8, 3.39, and other epigrams, Martial makes fun of a person with just one eye.
12.26. The bandits may be implying that Saenia was too ugly to fuck or, as Shackleton Bailey suggests, that she performed other sexual acts (3:110n).
12.27. Though Martial complains when he, as a guest, is served different wine than his host is drinking (3.49, 4.85), he justifies serving a cheaper wine to Cinna because Cinna drinks so much.
12.30. A sober slave would be unlikely to be sneaking into the wine, but friends would typically be drinking together, so a sober man in the crowd might put a damper on the fun.
12.31. Martial is describing his home in Bilbilis, after he retired to Hispania. Marcella was his local patroness. Nausicaa is a Phaeacian princess in The Odyssey, whose father Alcinous has gardens described as a sort of earthly paradise, in which fruits are always in season.
12.34. This poem, addressed to Martial’s closest friend, Lucius Julius Martialis (Shackleton Bailey 3:361), looks back fondly on their years together in Rome. Martial was living in retirement in Spain when he wrote it.
12.35. To Romans, there were more shameful things than being sodomized. Martial implies that Callistratus also performs oral sex.
12.40. The one thing that Pontilianus does without Martial is not specified, but is implied to be something sexual of a discreditable nature. Martial casts himself as a long-suffering legacy hunter, willing to commit any hypocrisy to keep the rich target happy, but his true feelings are revealed in his wish that Pontilianus will die soon.
12.42. Though sexual liaisons between grown men and boys were accepted by Roman society, the idea of two adult men wanting to marry one another would have seemed absurd, and the idea of a bearded man wearing the wedding veil of a virgin was even more ridiculous.
12.45. This early form of a toupee, made from kidskin (presumably with the hair still on it) excites derision from Martial, who also makes fun of Phoebus for painting hair on his bald head in 6.57.
12.46. This poem is probably addressed to one of Martial’s slave boys, given his other similar poems about their uncooperative behavior.
12.47. Martial implies that the ones who buy verse by Lupercus and Gallus are the true madmen.
12.51. Aulus Pudens is a friend of Martial’s and is frequently addressed in his poems (Shackleton Bailey 3:378).
12.56. When people recovered from illness, their friends would send them soteria, gifts to congratulate them on their recovery (Shackleton Bailey 3:137n). Polycharmus seems to be faking frequent illness to collect these gifts.
12.58. Alauda’s wife, knowing that he sleeps with slave girls, indulges in sex with the slaves who carry her litter. Though the double standard of Roman times endorses Alauda’s infidelity, not hers, Martial implies that the two deserve one another.
12.61. According to Martial, Ligurra longs to be considered important enough to be lampooned by him, pretending to fear such notoriety, but actually desiring it. Martial says Ligurra is unworthy of his own verses, but fit for those of scurrilous graffiti writers who scrawl their work in latrines, brothels, and other dark corners. The drunk bard may be living under an archway, as homeless people do even now, though it is possible that he chooses such a location to write in so that he will be less likely to be caught in the act.
12.64. Cinna, Martial implies, has no taste for beauty, only for food.
12.65. Phyllis, ironically, asks for far less than Martial is prepared to give for the night of sex with her, and by asking first, she loses out on what he would have given. Prostitutes usually charged more for sexual services such as anal or oral intercourse than for regular intercourse, so her moderate demands are surprising.
12.69. Martial implies that the friends are as phony as Paulus’ “antique” paintings and wine cups (Shackleton Bailey 3:150n).
12.71. Martial suggests that Lygdus formerly satisfied even requests that should be refused, such as a request for fellatio (Shackleton Bailey 3:151n). A similar point is made about Thais in 4.12.
12.73. The last line means “I won’t believe it unless I read it, Catullus” (Shackleton Bailey 3:153). Since the will of Catullus would not be read until after his death, Shackleton Bailey takes this to be a hint to Catullus to die (3:152n). Since Martial frequently praises the poet Catullus (ca. 84–ca. 54 BCE) and seeks to imitate him, there may also be a self-deprecating allusion here to Martial’s hope that he will be seen as the heir of that Catullus.
12.76. Though the farmer has more food and wine than he can consume, he can get no money for them (Shackleton Bailey 3:155n). The as, here translated as “cent,” was a bronze coin of low value.
12.78. Shackleton Bailey notes that plaintiffs could challenge defendants in law cases to swear an oath that their claims were true; to refuse to swear was an admission of guilt. Martial would rather pay damages than admit the truth that he has not written anything against Bithynicus, implying that he wishes he had (3:157n).
12.79. As in 12.71 and 4.12, the joke is that anyone who refuses no requests will agree to perform fellatio.
12.80. Martial often, as here, shows disgust at the praise of poets he considers unworthy, perhaps feeling that his own poetry was undervalued by comparison.
12.81. Though the pun on alicula (light coat) and alica (a drink made from spelt, a kind of grain) cannot be preserved in English, the irony of Umber’s sending a more expensive gift when he was poor than after he becomes rich is still clear. Umber sent a costlier gift when he was poor because he hoped to gain something from Martial. Once he was rich himself, he had no incentive to stay in Martial’s favor.
12.84. According to myth, Pelops had a shoulder of ivory because his father Tantalus had killed him and served him as a meal to the gods. All of the gods refrained from eating any of the cannibalistic feast except Demeter, who was so distracted by grief for her daughter Persephone’s recent kidnapping that she ate his left shoulder. When the gods brought the boy back to life, the missing shoulder was supplied by an ivory substitute. Polytimus, a slave of Martial’s, longs to cut his hair as a sign of manhood and an end to his role as Martial’s catamite. Martial does not want to grant that wish, but once he does, he finds Polytimus even more attractive with his hair cut short, like a bridegroom’s, revealing his ivory shoulders.
12.85. Martial may have associated the name Fabullus with smelling because of poem 13 of Catullus, in which Catullus tells Fabullus that once he has smelled the perfume of the girlfriend of Catullus, he will wish he were all nose. Martial makes his usual joke about oral sex causing bad breath.
12.86. Martial not only points out the irony of owning many desirable slaves while being unable to perform sexually, but also hints that the only sexual options available to such a person were the shameful ones of performing oral sex or being sodomized.
12.87. People reclined barefoot on couches while dining (Shackleton Bailey 3:163n), so Cotta would have left his sandals in his slave’s care. Since the slave has twice lost the sandals and Cotta has no other slave he can bring, he solves the problem by going to dinner barefoot.
12.91. Magulla shares not only her husband’s bed, but also his male bed-mate. She does not share the good-looking boy who pours his wine (and who may also be his catamite). Her reason may be either that the husband is more jealous of that boy and might be tempted to poison her if she had sex with him or that having her wine poured by her husband’s darling gives him a greater opportunity to poison her.
12.92. Martial implies that it is as likely that he will get wealth and power as it is that Priscus will become a lion.
12.93. The dwarf that Labulla keeps as a fool is compared to her own husband (a bigger fool) in that she is able to carry on her adultery right under his nose without his suspecting a thing.
12.95. The books of Sybaris were well-known pornographic works by Hemitheon, called “The Sybarite,” though Mussetius is otherwise unknown (Shackleton Bailey 3:167n). Sullivan points out that Martial tends to portray masturbation as an inferior mode of sexual activity (190–91).
12.96. Here, as in 11.43, Martial makes the argument that wives should not consider boys to be their rivals and should not try to compete with the boys by allowing the husband to sodomize them; this poem, however, is addressed to an unnamed woman instead of to Martial’s invented wife, as it was in 11.43.
12.97. Martial here writes to Bassus as if in the capacity of a lawyer for the neglected wife of Bassus, to shame him into fulfilling his marital obligations to her. Though Martial himself was averse to marrying and often has negative things to say about wives and marriage, he supports the expectation that married men would make an effort to reproduce with their wives.