Audio Valerium Martialem decessisse et moleste fero. Erat homo ingeniosus acutus acer, et qui plurimum in scribendo et salis haberet et fellis nec candoris minus. At non erunt aeterna quae scripsit: non erunt fortasse, ille tamen scripsit tamquam essent futura.

There are good metrical translations of most of the epigrams. The translations of Hay and Fletcher are particularly good. On one attempt at a metrical translation Burns wrote the following epigram:

O thou whom Poetry abhors,

Whom Prose had turned out of doors,

Heard'st thou yon groan? - proceed no further,

'Twas laurel'd Martial calling murther.

1. Martial explains why Gemellus, the fortune-hunter, is infatuated with the rich Maronilla. The names are, of course, fictitious.

Metre: Choliambic. G. 764.

Scheme:

~|_ SILUT_UILILJ.

Metrical translations by Fletcher, Hay, and others.

3. foedius: more disgusting.—4. tussit: the point of the satire is, in this metre, often expressed by a dissyllabic word at the end of the poem.

2. Selius, who has passed the day in trying to secure an invitation to dinner, is, to his great sorrow, forced to dine at home. The name is fictitious; the character a common one at Rome.

Metre: Choliambic.

Metrical translation by Hay.

2. porticum: the porticos were the regular promenades of the Romans, and therefore the most favorable places for meeting friends who would invite one to dinner. — 6. fata: poetic for mortem. - 8. sarcinae: a disparaging designation of his property, traps. Juvenal 6. 146, parodies the formula for divorcing one's wife, tuas res tibi habeto, by making the husband say, collige sarcinulas. — 9. colonus: tenant. ·decoxit: squandered, cf. rustici decoctores, Cic. Cat. 2. 5.

3. The Roman country-seat was often more ornamental than useful, being provided only with shade-trees and flower-beds. Bassus, the owner of such a villa, is here held up to the ridicule of Faustinus, whose bona fide farm Martial describes at length in 3. 58. Bassus and Faustinus are real names. Metre: Choliambic.

1. Capena. the gate of the via Appia. Above it ran a branch of the aqua Marcia, through which the water was constantly dripping, cf. Juvenal 3. 11, madidam Capenam, etc.-2. Where the Almo washes the Phrygian knife of the mother of the gods. At the junction of the Almo and the Tiber the priests used, at the festival of Cybele, to wash the sacred implements and the statue of the goddess. Cf. Ovid, Fasti, 4. 337, Est locus, in Tiberim quo lubricus influit Almo | et nomen magno perdit in amne minor. | Illic purpurea canus cum veste sacerdos | Almonis dominam sacraque lavit aquis. -3. Horatiorum . campus: the plain in which

the bodies of the Horatii and the Curiatii were buried after their famous contest, cf. Liv. 1. 25. 13, sepulcra extant quo quisque loco cecidit, duo Romana uno loco propius Albam, tria Albana Romam versus, sed distantia locis, ut et pugnatum est.

4. pusilli Herculis: refers probably to the youthful Hercules who is represented on at least one tombstone equipped with the club and lion-skin. Later a second temple of Hercules was erected near the older one, and the hero was represented in the form of Domitian. Cf. Martial 9. 64.-6. beati: rich.-7. frutice: head. 8. utrumque porrum:= porrum sectile and porrum capitatum, two varieties of leek.-9. pigro ventri non inutiles: as the Roman regularly overloaded his stomach at dinner, some stimulant to digestion was very necessary; cf. Smith, D. A. 1. 396, gustatio.· 10. coronam : hoop. -12. nondum victa faba: cf. Varro, r. r. 2. 4. 17, lactantes (porci) dicuntur nefrendes ab eo quod nondum fabam frendere possunt.-13. nec feriatus: he had no easy time. carruca: cf. raeda, vs. 5.

4. Martial lived very near a schoolhouse, and in another epigram, 9. 68, we find him complaining that his morning nap was disturbed by the harsh voice of the teacher and the sound of his birch. The present epigram is an appeal to the teacher to give his pupils a vacation, at least during the dog-days. Metre: Choliambic.

Metrical translation by Hay.

2. capillati: Roman boys wore the hair long. - 3. delicatae: the adjective belongs rather with chorus than with mensa, which means the teacher's desk. Paley makes the school a boarding school, delicatue referring to the dainty table set for the parlor-boarders. — 4. calculator, notarius velox: the teachers of mathematics, and shorthand writing.-5. coronetur: the group of auditors around a speaker was called corona, and so the verb means, to be surrounded. 6. albae luces: the cloudless days. — leone flammeo: the reference is to the hot season of the year when the sun appeared in the zodiacal sign Leo, cf. Smith, D. A. vol. 1. 222.-8. Scythae pellis: an attempt to give the etymology of the word scutica, cat o' nine tails, a favorite implement of the teacher. —9. vapulavit: Martial is the sole authority for the statement that Marsyas was flogged before being flayed.

5. The oriental custom of greeting by kissing was probably introduced at Rome in the time of Augustus. It was confined, at first, to the court circle, but later became general and indiscriminate, for Martial, 12. 59, complains of the offensive kisses of the weaver, the laundry man, the cobbler, and others. Even if this account is somewhat exaggerated, there can be little doubt that the custom was becoming distasteful to many.

4-5. a list of unwholesome eruptions on the face and lips. - 6. pingui cerato: lip-salve, made of wax.-9. nuptiale: equivalent to the dative urori.— 10. asseret: frees. The technical legal expression for freeing a slave, aliquem manu adserere liberali causa, was eventually shortened to adserere alone, and under the empire the verb is used in the sense, to free, with apparently no trace of its former technical meaning. 11. lectica: a litter, cf. Smith, D. A. s. v.-12. sella: a sedan chair.―saepius clusa: refers to the closing of the curtains after they had been pulled open by importunate friends who recognized the attendants and insisted upon a greeting. - 15. senive fasces: the praetor, who was accompanied by six lictors bearing the fasces.-18. curuli: sc. sella, the curule chair was used as a judgment seat.-24. facias amicum, etc.: the real friend did not need to make this public display of affection; the basiatores were all sycophants.

6. Martial complains of the reserve of his nearest neighbor.

Metre Phalaecean or Hendecasyllabic (p. 3, § 14).
Metrical translations by Swift and Hay.

2. Novius: perhaps the famous chess-player mentioned by Martial, 7. 72. 7. — 7. Syenen: a military post on the extreme southern boundary of the Roman Empire. 12. inquilinus: fellow-lodger, cf. Festus p. 107, is qui eundem colit focum.

7. About 89 A. D. the emperor Domitian issued an edict, insisting upon the rigid enforcement of the lex Roscia, which reserved for the equites the first fourteen rows of seats in the theatre immediately behind the orchestra. As the law had been for some time practically a dead letter, its enforcement resulted in many amusing scenes in the theatres.

Metre Phalaecean or Hendecasyllabic (p. 3, § 14).

1. domini deique nostri: not satirical; Domitian had ordained that he should be always thus addressed, cf. Suet. Dom. 13.-3. puros: free, from unauthorized persons.-4. Phasis: a fictitious name, typical, however, of the class of people who were affected by the new regulation, viz. upstart Greeks.-10. supinus: lolling back. 12. Leïtus: one of the ushers or police of the theatre.

8. Martial took particular delight in making fun of bald-heads, a remarkable fact when it is remembered that Domitian himself was bald, and so sensitive on the subject that he regarded as a personal insult any allusion to baldness, whether serious or in jest; cf. Suet. Dom. 18.

Metre Phalaecean or Hendecasyllabic (p. 3, § 14).

Metrical translation by Fletcher.

8-9. In December 88 A. D., at the festival of the Septimontium (cf. Smith, D. A. 2. 578), Domitian distributed baskets of bread to the senators and equites, cf. Suet. Dom. 4.-II. Geryon: the Spanish giant with three bodies slain by Hercules, who carried off his famous oxen, cf. Vergil, Aen. 8. 202, Tergemini nece Geryonae spoliisque superbus, | Alcides aderat, taurosque hac victor agebat | ingentis. 12. porticum Philippi: this portico surrounded the temple of Hercules, and Martial implies that Labienus, if seen there, may be mistaken for the triple Geryon.

9. Lupus, a friend of Martial, asks the advice of the poet in choosing a profession for his son. Martial advises against literary pursuits.

Metre Phalaecean or Hendecasyllabic (p. 3, § 14).
Metrical translations by Tom Brown and Hay.

4. devites the subjunctive does not depend on moneo, cf. A. &. G. p. 164, parataxis.-5. Maronis: Vergil.-6. Tutilius: a well known author and rhetorician of the time.-7. Martial knew, from experience, how little money could be made by writing poetry. 8. si is omitted because the form of the sentence shows that it is conditional.-9. citharoedus aut choraules: in apposition with the subject of discut. The profession of music was proverbially lucrative in ancient times. II. praeconem, architectum: the two most lucrative employments in ancient Rome. In Martial 6. 8, two auctioneers, four tribunes, seven lawyers, and ten poets are suitors for the hand of a girl. The father, without a moment's hesitation, gives her to one of the auctioneers.

10. This epigram, recounting the things necessary to make life happy, is addressed to Julius Martialis, for more than thirty-four years the dearest friend of the poet. In spite of the similarity of names, they were not relatives. Julius was rich, the owner of a beautiful estate, containing a choice library, on the Janiculum. He seems, however, to have been a typical business man who never permitted himself a moment's rest, for Martial, who constantly urges him to enjoy life, says that, although sixty years old, he has lived only a few days. Cf. Mart. 1. 15. 3. The doctrine of the poem is Epicurean.

Metre Phalaecean or Hendecasyllabic (p. 3, § 14).

Metrical translations are numerous: Fletcher, Hay, Henry Howard, Sir Richard Fanshawe, and others.

3. res: property. - 5. lis nunquam: in 2. 90. 10, Martial expresses the same dislike of lawsuits, sit sine lite dies.- toga rara: the use of the toga seems to have been as irksome to the Romans as that of the dress-suit is to the ordinary man of to-day. Clients making their morning call, and citizens transacting business in the forum, were compelled to appear in the toga. The garb at home was the tunic, cf. 10. 51. 6, o tunicata quies! -7. prudens simplicitas: judicious frank8. sine arte mensa: the extravagance of Roman dinners was proverbial. -9. nox non ebria: Martial is not preaching total abstinence. -10. torus: by metonymy for uxor.—12-13. contentment. summum diem mortem.

ness.

11. Martial's tribute to the memory of Paris, a celebrated pantomime, murdered by order of Domitian on account of an intrigue with Domitia, the emperor's wife.

Metre Phalaecean or Hendecasyllabic (p. 3, § 14).
Metrical translation by Fletcher.

1. Flaminiam: sc. viam. The roads leading from the city were for many miles lined, on both sides, with tombs and monuments, burials within the city being forbidden by the law of the twelve tables. - 3. Note in this and the three following verses the arrangement by pairs, deliciae salesque; ars et gratia; lusus et voluptas; etc., a favorite rhetorical figure. Nili: the Alexandrians were

famed for their wit, cf. Mart. 4. 42. 4, nequitias tellus scit dare nulla magis.-6. Veneres Cupidinesque: a reminiscence of Catullus 3. 1.

12. Martial complains that the so-called farm presented to him by Lupus (perhaps the man mentioned in 9. 1) is too small to be put to any practical use. The poem was probably not intended to be taken too seriously. The general idea was apparently suggested by the following poem of Lucillius, a Greek writer of epigrams in the time of Nero. Cf. Jacobs, Anthol. Graeca 3. p. 42.

Αγρὸν Μηνοφάνης ὠνήσατο, καὶ διὰ λιμόν

ἐκ δρυὸς ἀλλοτρίας αὑτὸν ἀπηγχόνισε.
Γῆν δ ̓ αὐτῷ τεθνεῶτι βαλεῖν οὐκ ἔσχον ἄνωθεν,
ἀλλ ̓ ἐτάφη μισθοῦ πρός τινα τῶν ὁμόρων.
Εἰ δ ̓ ἔγνω τὸν ἀγρὸν τὸν Μηνοφάνους Επίκουρος
πάντα γέμειν ἀγρῶν εἶπεν ἂν, οὐκ ἀτόμων.

Metre Phalaecean or Hendecasyllabic (p. 3, § 14).

Metrical translation in the English Journ. of Education, Jan. 1856.

2. rus in fenestra: window gardens were in general use at Rome, as is shown by Pliny, H. N. 19. 59.-4. nemus Dianae: there were many extensive groves in Italy sacred to Diana; the chief one was at Aricia. The reference here is simply to the lack of woodland, as there is nothing to show that a nemus Dianae was an essential or even a common feature of a country-seat.-7. corona: the technical meaning as applied to a plot of ground, raised boundary, makes no sense. Friedländer and Gilbert suggest that it may mean a round flower-bed. — 9. Cosmi: a celebrated perfumer at Rome. - folium refers to some leaf from which perfume was extracted. —13. culix: Pliny, H. N. 17. 231, says that certain kinds of culices were destructive to trees. 16. ridere: poetic expression conveying the same idea as hiare and patere. - 18. sus Calydonius: the famous boar which wrought havoc in the Calydonian fields until it was finally slain by Meleager. 19. Prognes: swallow, cf. any book on mythology. — 24. picata: all vessels which were intended to contain wine were given an inner coating of pitch; wine barrels are still treated in the same way.

13. This epitaph, composed by Martial for a little slave-girl, commending her to the protection of his parents, is one of the daintiest poems in any language. There is no adequate metrical translation of it.

Metre: Elegiac Distich or Stanza. See

p. 12.

1. Fronto, Flaccilla: now generally regarded as the parents of Martial. -2. oscula: a term of endearment. —4. canis: Cerberus. — 5. impletura fuit: A. & G. 308. d. 8. blaeso: lisping.-9-10. a charming circumlocution for the regular ST TL, sit tibi terra levis, of the ordinary tombstone.