Literary Polemic in Martial

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Following the practice of Greek and Roman poets, Martial employs polemic as a means of expressing his literary views, particularly with respect to his chosen genre and his place within that genre. In order to elevate the status of epigram within the generic hierarchy, he attacks the higher forms of poetry as stale and irrelevant to real life, dismissing their apologists in highly personal and aggressive terms. He often engages in an argumentative to-and-fro with a supposed critic of his poetry or of his opinions, summarily dismissing his opponent in a typically epigrammatic put-down that brands him as vacuous, deluded or merely inept.