Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis, known in English as Martial (c. 40 - c. 104), was a Latin poet born in Bilbilis, near the present-day town of Calatayud, in the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. He wrote in Rome during the reigns of Titus, Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. He is remembered above all for his epigrams, short poems in which he reached a level of skill that few of his contemporaries matched. His work matters because it portrays the social life of the imperial capital with sharp wit and vivid detail.

He came from a comfortable family, as his schooling in a grammar school suggests. Unlike many Hispanic writers from families that had moved to Rome, he was proud of his native roots, and he presented himself as a man of Celtiberian stock. Around 64 he went to Rome to study law, probably with the backing of Seneca, but Seneca's fall and death in 65 left him without a protector. For roughly thirty-five years he lived as a client of wealthy patrons, depending on their gifts, and he never achieved real financial independence.

His first book, the Liber spectaculorum, marked the opening of the Flavian amphitheatre, the Colosseum, in 80 and described the games held over one hundred days. He then wrote couplets meant for the gifts exchanged at the Saturnalia, and from 86 onwards he published a new volume almost every year until the twelve books that make up the core of his fame. Thanks to the favour of Titus and Domitian he gained equestrian rank and some privileges, though he never got what he most wanted. He complained, with humour, that his books were copied freely and brought him no money at all.

His style depends on concision and wit. His poems move from tender lyricism to obscenity, and they parade swindlers, hypocrites, dancers and ageing women of the demimonde. He mocks often but rarely with moral outrage, which is why many readers see him as an observer rather than a strict satirist. His verses are also a valuable record of everyday Roman life, although they include flattering, self-interested praise of the emperor that modern readers find uncomfortable.

After Nerva and Trajan came to power he lost much of his support. In 98 he returned to Bilbilis, where an admirer named Marcella gave him a country estate, and there he wrote his last books. He died around 102 or 103, though the exact date is uncertain. His legacy is considerable: Renaissance humanists read and commented on him with enthusiasm, and some critics have called him the first Spanish conceptist. Today he is regarded as the great master of the Latin epigram.