Selected Epigrams

by Martial

  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.

  Book Eleven

  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 Domitian also executed those who openly mourned the death of Paris, so this epitaph could not be published until after Domitian’s death in 96 CE (94).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 consideri
ng 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 T
elesilla (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).