Martial's Epigrams Research Articles

PLAYING IN THE LION'S JAWS: METATEXTUALITY IN MARTIAL'S ‘LION AND HARE’ CYCLE

Abstract This paper aims to provide an analysis of the metatextual function of one of the most well-known elements of Martial's Epigrams, the ‘lion and hare’ cycle from Book 1. This cycle, in which a hare is held precariously but safely in the jaws of a lion, has historically been read as representing the relationship between Domitian and poet. This paper aims to expand on this reading of the cycle while considering a largely unexplored point of view: the metatexual function of this cycle within Martial's larger epigrammatic project. I identify three major ways in which the cycle supports Martial's larger interests in exploring poetic anxieties and defending the genre of epigrammatic poetry. First of all, by figuring the lion and the hare as, respectively, the emperor and the poet, Martial presents and performs an exemplum modelling clemency in the reception of lascivious poetry. Second, as a sexual metaphor that points to the anxiety and insecurity of both predator and prey, the cycle anticipates a broader concern of the Epigrams: the instability of Roman hierarchical relations and the difficulty of maintaining balance within such relationships. Third, Martial's continued use of hare imagery in the later books of the Epigrams, both in culinary and in hunting contexts, suggests the continued consumption and enjoyment of the genre of epigram, particularly outside of the imperial city.

Metaphors and Telescopes: The Reception of Emanuele Tesauro’s Il Cannocchiale Aristotelico in Marvell’s Poetry

Abstract This article argues that Emanuele Tesauro’s treatise on wit, Il Cannocchiale Aristotelico (1654) influenced Andrew Marvell’s Restoration satire ‘The Last Instructions to a Painter’. It highlights a number of close correspondences between the engraved allegorical frontispiece of Tesauro’s treatise and Marvell’s final envoi ‘To the King’, which ironize the poem’s claim that it only satirizes the king’s courtiers. There are also affinities between Tesauro’s and Marvell’s development of imagery drawn from a Martial epigram at another pivotal moment in the ‘The Last Instructions to a Painter’, which reveal Marvell’s keen sense of the shifting associations between poetic style, religion and Restoration politics. Marvell found in Il Cannocchiale Aristotelico, the essay argues, a discussion of the acuity of metaphor which meshed excitingly with his own previously developed practice, especially his interest in reflexive and optical imagery. The article canvasses some of the ways in which Il Cannocchiale Aristotelico may have influenced Marvell’s later poetry, particularly in the use of ‘laconic’ wit, as he adapted to the poetic and political coteries of the Restoration. But it argues that ‘The Last Instructions to a Painter’’s notoriously baroque tribute to the Scottish Catholic soldier Archibald Douglas identifies Tesauro’s theory of wit with counter-reformation aesthetics, and uses parody to negotiate an uncomfortable recognition of how Marvell’s lyric poetry might be interpreted by Restoration readers.

Martial's hawk and Iberian falconry. An exception in the ancient world

It has been generally acknowledged that falconry was unknown in Antiquity until it was imported in the 5th century AD by Germanic tribes into the lands of the Roman Empire. However, this theory contrasts with a 1st century AD epigram by Martial that depicts a hawk kept in captivity that regrets hunting for a fowler, a concept that can be perfectly understood as falconry. Due to a lack of knowledge of Iberian iconography and the absence of other early sources that attest to the existence of hawking in Antiquity, historians of hunting have interpreted Martial's epigram in diverse ways to avoid accepting that the poet was familiar with falconry. However, a careful look at Iberian figurative arts between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC reveals that Iberians depicted scenes perfectly coherent with falconry. Furthermore, some of these images were created in the region around Bilbilis where Martial was born, grew up and retired. Thus, we can conclude that it is highly likely that Martial was describing falconry in his epigram due to his knowledge of the sport in his native Hispania. Iberians seem to have practiced falconry since at least the 3rd century BC. This constituted an exception in the ancient world, since there is no evidence to prove that falconry was known in Middle Eastern, Greek or Roman civilizations.

The Materiality of Monetary Value in Martial’s Epigrams

This paper examines representations of money in the epigrams of Martial. I argue that Martial’s poetics are deeply influenced by some of money’s economic functions, even if many of these functions are approached through networks of amicitia. By engaging with the indeterminacy of what can be called exchange value, Martial identifies an aesthetic dimension that becomes central to his humor. The form of value described by his paradoxical poetics of cash implies a category of matter that is at once sensuous and abstract, autonomous and dependent upon other modes of valuation. I focus on the sensuality of this abstract matter, its failure to become entirely impersonal, and on Martial’s habit of using deictic language to gesture to its presence. Such an aestheticization of monetary value differs from more familiar techniques of using vivid language to flesh out moral or satirical attitudes to wealth or the ways in which it is acquired. It instead approaches the instability of money as an object of inspiration in its own right, one that supports the epigrammatist’s habit of taking up postures throughout his corpus of poems, and of maintaining a degree of detachment between his voice and its pronouncements.

MARTIAL AND THE DOCTORS: OPHTHALMOLOGY AND UVULECTOMY IN EPIGRAM 10.56

AbstractThis short note attempts to shed light on some of the surgical procedures referred to in Martial's epigram 10.56 by consulting pertinent Graeco-Roman medical texts. A fuller understanding of one such intervention (treatment of infected/inflamed uvula) supports Martial's text as transmitted.

After Fame: The Epigrams of Martial, by Sam Riviere

<i>After Fame: The Epigrams of Martial</i>, by Sam Riviere

MARTIAL ‘IN CALLIMACHVM’ (10.4)

This article has the aim of bringing some fresh observations to the interpretation of a Martial epigram. Beyond the individual poem, it seeks to read Martial's poetics more broadly, particularly with regard to the presence of Greek avatars, of various kinds, in his poetic production. The strategy will be an exact reading of the literary avatars in 10.4, with an attempt to specify the tone with which individual writers are associated. Once this strategy is developed in the case of well-recognized intertextual models, it will be used to explore an underrated intertext in 10.4.

Taking a latitude: William Hay’s translations and imitations of Martial

This paper examines the translations and imitations of the classical Roman poet Martial included in William Hay, Select Epigrams of Martial (1755), as well as their paratexts, including the physical appearance of the book, the title-page, and the publisher’s advertisements at the end. The absence of a dedication and the relative paucity of annotation, both features of many published translations of the period, are commented on. Particular attention is paid to the fact that the work was published simultaneously in two different editions, one with and one without the Latin source text of the poems translated. It is argued that the Latin text functions as a paratext which offers a commentary on the translations, and that, taken together, these features offer an interesting case study in eighteenth-century British translation practices, and are particularly revealing about translation norms concerning references to sexuality and about gendered expectations relating to intended readerships.

Epicurean Principle and Poetic Program in Martial Epigrams 10.47–48

Epicurean Principle and Poetic Program in Martial Epigrams 10.47–48

The Diffusion of the Codex

The adoption of the codex for literature in the Roman world was one of the most significant developments in the history of the book, yet remains poorly understood. Physical evidence seems to contradict literary evidence from Martial's epigrams. Near-total adoption of the codex for early Christian works, even as the book roll dominated non-Christian book forms in the first centuries of our era, has led to endless speculation about possible ideological motives for adoption. What has been unquestioned is the importance of Christian scribes in the surge of adoption from 300 C.E. onward. This article reexamines the foundation of many theories, the timeline for non-Christian adoption sketched by Roberts and Skeat in their study, The Birth of the Codex, and reevaluates it through the lens of “diffusion of innovations theory” in order to reconcile the evidence and elevate practical considerations once and for all over ideological motives.

Martial and the fiscus Iudaicus Once More

That the fiscus Iudaicus was used to fund the Roman temple known as Jupiter Capitolinus is a commonly accepted fact in social histories of Judaism during the Principate. After discussing the tenuous evidentiary basis for this claim, this article suggests an additional datum in its favor. Namely, one of Martial's epigrams (11.94) makes a peculiar reference to the temple of the ‘Thunderer’ that may be previously unrecognized evidence for the temple's funding.

Martial's Epigram 10.47: Thirty-Nine English Translations to 1750

Martial's Epigram 10.47: Thirty-Nine English Translations to 1750

“Finis epigrammatis est anima eius”: Transformations of the Content of the Latin Epigram in the Epoch of the Baroque

After the flowering of the epigram in Ancient Greece and Rome, greater attention to this genre was paid at the beginning of the Renaissance, and the epoch of the Baroque (the 17–18th centuries) could be called one of the brightest periods of epigram revival and prosperity in all Europe. In the 16–18th centuries literary theorists in their works discussed the place of the epigram in the hierarchy of literary genres, determined their functions, form, defined the possibilities of content. By suggesting that the form of the epigram had not been settled in Antiquity, theorists gave most attention to the content of the epigram and explained how, when in imitating the most famous ancient authors, the epigram could be given Christian features. The article, using comparative methods, will analyze how epigrams of Martial were imitated by the poet of the 17th century Grand Duchy of Lithuania M. C. Sarbievius.

Un epigrama de Marcial en el Guzmán de Alfarache

In the passage I, ii, 4 of the Guzman de Alfarache (which famously praises picaresque life) scholars have traced the influence of some texts from Alberti's Momo. This paper tries to prove that it is also a paraphrase of Martial's epigram IX 92.

Facilis hic futuit : Graffiti and Masculinity in Pompeii's 'Purpose-Built' Brothel

Facilis hic futuit: Graffiti and Masculinity in Pompeii's 'Purpose-Built' Brothel Sarah Levin-Richardson (bio) Phoebus / bonus futor (Phoebus is a good fukr, CIL IV 2248, Add. 215); Froto plane / lingit cun/num (Froto openly licks cunt, CIL IV 2257); Murtis · felatris (Murtis is a blow-job babe, CIL IV 2292). Long overlooked by scholarship as obscene recordings of sexual encounters, the 135 graffiti of the 'purpose-built' brothel at Pompeii (VII 12 18-20; CIL IV 2173-96 and 3101a; Add. 215-6 and Add. 465) form a rich corpus that illuminates daily interactions among clients and prostitutes in the Roman world. 1 In this paper, I demonstrate through these graffiti the multiple ways in which male clients, individually and collectively, negotiated male sexuality. Specifically, I analyze how male clients both created a hierarchy among themselves and solidified communal, normative masculinity in opposition to nonnormative males and marginalized females. I. Introduction In the past fifteen years, the graffiti of the 'purpose-built' brothel (hereafter referred to simply as the brothel) have entered the scholarly arena, usually as part of works devoted to surveying or analyzing erotic graffiti at Pompeii. For example, some of the brothel's sexual graffiti were treated by Antonio Varone's Erotica pompeiana: Iscrizioni d'amore sui muri di Pompei (1994; translated into English in 2002 as Erotica pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on theWalls of Pompeii). Varone surveys a wide range of erotic and love graffiti from all over Pompeii, grouping them into motifs like "Preghiere d'amore" and "L'arma d'amore." Through this typology, Varone draws out common themes in a diverse body of material. Francesco Paolo Maulucci Vivolo's Pompei: I graffiti d'amore (1995) presents samples of erotic graffiti from Pompeii, including some from the brothel, evoking how prolific this type of graffiti was. Taking a more analytic approach, Matthew Panciera's dissertation, "Sexual Practice and Invective in Martial and Pompeian Inscriptions" (2001), compares the different meanings and implications of sexual practices in the corpus of Martial's epigrams and Pompeii's graffiti. [End Page 59] These scholars have shed light on various features of erotic graffiti at Pompeii, but do not address how these graffiti may have worked in each specific locale or in concert with nonerotic graffiti. Varone's article, "Nella Pompei a luci rosse: Castrensis e l'organizzazione della prostituzione e dei suoi spazi" (2005), however, adds a new perspective to the study of the brothel's graffiti. Varone analyzes the status and sexual practices of the individuals in the brothel through close reading of its graffiti, demonstrating the potential gains of a contextual or locus-specific approach. 2 In this article, I follow Varone in exploring the brothel's graffiti together as a corpus, but ask different questions of the material. Specifically, I seek to illuminate the underlying structure of the corpus's rhetoric. The graffiti, I argue, are more than just records of sexual liaisons or advertisements of the services of prostitutes; they represent an interactive discourse concerning masculinity. Clients and prostitutes could and did add their thoughts to the corpus over time, which encouraged multiple viewings. In addition, even illiterate viewers could be exposed to the graffiti through someone else's recitation. 3 It may not be surprising that boasts and defamation are constituent elements of this dialogue; but as I will show, the ways in which boasts and defamation are deployed and against whom, and the implications this has for a rhetoric of masculinity, reveal a discourse far different from the intra-elite masculine invective seen in the poetry of Catullus and Martial. II. Contextualizing the Brothel and its Graffiti At the intersection of the north-south Vicolo del Lupanare and the east-west Vicolo del Balcone Pensile, located to the east of Pompeii's forum, lies a modest, two-story structure. 4 The bottom floor contains five small rooms, each with a masonry bed, opening off a central hallway. Erotic frescoes, most showing a male-female pair engaged in penile-vaginal intercourse, line the register above the doorways in the hallway. 5 The graffiti, on the other hand, are found mostly (88%) within the small cubicula. The terminus post quem of both the graffiti...

Martial and the City of Rome

ABSTRACTThis essay examines the representation of the city of Rome in Martial's Epigrams, and specifically, his references to urban topography. The city is an insistent and vivid presence in Martial's Epigrams to a degree unparalleled in Roman poetry. He fashions a Rome that is more relentlessly sordid, irregular and jagged in texture, and overtly dissonant in its juxtapositions than the literary cities of his poetic predecessors. This new urban emphasis is not only a game of literary one-upmanship. Martial's urban poetics takes shape in the context of renewed attention to the city and monumental building under the Flavians.

The Concept of SAL in Latin Poetry and in Martial's Epigrams

The Concept of SAL in Latin Poetry and in Martial's Epigrams

Plagiarism and Poetic Identity in Martial

This article addresses the significance of plagiarism as a poetic theme in Martial's Epigrams . Martial is the first classical poet to use the term plagiarius to refer to literary theft ( Ep. 1.52), and elsewhere in his epigrams, he frequently accuses other poets of appropriating or copying his work. This article argues that Martial's explicit references to plagiarism illustrate a poetic self-identity invested in the materiality of his texts: as Martial objectifies his books, he also commodifies them as articles of the marketplace. By defining his poetry as material commodities available for purchase or theft, Martial also exposes the economic fictions of Roman literary patronage.

Drinking from the Water-Clock: Time and Speech in Imperial Rome

This article traces a representational history of the judicial clepsydra (water-clock) in early imperial Rome. While the topic of time has recently flourished in Roman studies, there has been relatively little focus on short-term and diurnal temporality as opposed to the time schemes of the annual calendar and broader history. The article offers a Roman complement to the study of democratic Athens in the 1996 essay "A Schedule of Boundaries" by Danielle Allen, and builds on the essay, "For Whom the Clock Drips," by Andrew Riggsby, with which it is co-published in this volume. Riggsby argues that the clepsydra offered an impersonal manifestation of imperial time specific to the period of the early principate, and shows how this aspect of the clepsydra is reflected in the letters of Pliny the Younger. This article contextualizes Pliny within the history of changing time limits in the early imperial courts, and compares the attitudes of Pliny with allusions to the clepsydra in Martial's epigrams. There are occasional mentions of time limits enforced by clepsydrae in Ciceronian oratory, but a self-conscious discourse on such limits, and on the role of the clepsydra in enforcing them, is not evident until the Dialogus de Oratoribus of Tacitus. There the opposing speakers Aper and Maternus are in agreement about the encroachment of time limits, and of limits on the number of clepsydrae (approximately 15-minute units) allowed to speakers, especially in the context of the centumviral courts. But while Aper celebrates this as in keeping with a new aesthetics of oratorical brevity, Maternus sees it as a symptom of the loss of republican "times"-in the sense both of historical time and of less restrictive time keeping conventions. These points of view are each echoed in the various mentions of clepsydrae in Pliny and Martial. Pliny, in accounts of his activities as both orator and judge ( Ep. 1.20, 1.23, 2.11, 6.2), variously celebrates his ability to shield himself from the impositions of the clepsydra, and advertises the liberality with which he has given time to speakers or has received capacious clepsydrae from the emperor Trajan. Martial, however, in two epigrams mocking speakers who exhibit excessive greed for clepsydrae and thus try the patience of audiences in the courtroom (6.35, 8.7), aligns the time restricting power of the clepsydra with the brevitas aesthetic of his epigrams-his poems in effect becoming clepsydrae through which he can appropriate time from his opponents. (Martial's clepsydra poems can also be interestingly juxtaposed with an epigram by the emperor Trajan [ Anth. Graec. 11.418 Beckby] that mocks someone by comparing his nose and gaping mouth to the gnomon and face of a sundial.) These diametrically opposed attitudes toward the clepsydra are in keeping with the time economies of Pliny's letters and Martial's epigrams more generally, the one celebrating an overflow and free exchange of time and seeing in this the possibility of retrieving republican times, the other searching for ways to steal or preserve time from the incursions of others, especially through performances of epigrammatic brevity.

The Poetic Coherence of Goethe's Venetian Epigrams

Comparison of the two poem cycles the Venetian Epigrams and the Roman Elegies usually falls out in the latter's favour. The Epigrams are thought to reflect Goethe's unhappy experience in Venice in 1790, to imitate the cynical epigrams of Martial, and to lack the poetic coherence of the Elegies. This paper shows that the Epigrams have more in common with the Elegies than is usually supposed. As well as imitating Martial, they draw on Juvenal's satires, with which they share a coherent, if deeply ironic, poetic and moral outlook.