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Epigrams, Volume II

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Epigrams, Volume II Synopsis

Poetic concision in abundance.It was to celebrate the opening of the Roman Colosseum in AD 80 that Martial published his first book of poems, "On the Spectacles." Written with satiric wit and a talent for the memorable phrase, the poems in this collection record the broad spectacle of shows in the new arena. The great Latin epigrammist's twelve subsequent books capture the spirit of Roman life—both public and private—in vivid detail. Fortune hunters and busybodies, orators and lawyers, schoolmasters and street hawkers, jugglers and acrobats, doctors and plagiarists, beautiful slaves, and generous hosts are among the diverse characters who populate his verses.Martial is a keen and sharp-tongued observer of Roman society. His pen brings into crisp relief a wide variety of scenes and events: the theater and public games, life in the countryside, a rich debauchee's banquet, lions in the amphitheater, the eruption of Vesuvius. The epigrams are sometimes obscene, in the tradition of the genre, sometimes warmly affectionate or amusing, and always pointed. Like his contemporary Statius, though, Martial shamelessly flatters his patron Domitian, one of Rome's worst-reputed emperors.D. R. Shackleton Bailey's translation of Martial's often difficult Latin eliminates many misunderstandings in previous versions. The text is mainly that of his highly praised Teubner edition of 1990.

About This Edition

ISBN: 9780674995567
Publication date: 6th January 1994
Author: Martial
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Format: Hardback
Pagination: 416 pages
Series: Loeb Classical Library
Genres: Literary essays