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Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial / ˈ m ɑːr ʃ əl /; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian [1] poet born in Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan.
Roman epigrams, however, were often more satirical than Greek ones, and at times used obscene language for effect. Latin epigrams could be composed as inscriptions or graffiti, such as this one from Pompeii, which exists in several versions and seems from its inexact meter to have been composed by a less educated person. Its content makes it ...
Owen became distinguished for his perfect mastery of the Latin language, and for the humour, felicity and point of his epigrams. [2] His Latin epigrams, which have both sense and wit in a high degree, gained him much applause, and were translated into English, French, German, and Spanish.
He was considered one of three or four masters of the epigram form in the English language. [7] Many of his epigrams included social and moral observations and were incisive, acerbic, and judicatory. [8] Cunningham's epigrams (including his translations of the Latin poet Martial) and short poems were often witty and sometimes ribald.
He also was a composer of poems, writing ecclesiastics and eulogies of English kings, and a book of moral epigrams in the style of Martial. Godfrey's genuine works were later often confused with those of Martial's. His work enjoyed considerable popularity in the century after his death and beyond. One of his poems is included in Carmina Burana. [1]
The original Latin phrase is often printed as O tempora! O mores! , with the addition of exclamation marks , which would not have been used in the Latin written in Cicero's day. The phrase was used by the Roman orator Cicero in four different speeches, [ 3 ] of which the earliest was his speech against Verres in 70 BC.
1490 Latin edition of Martial's Epigrams, which, prior to the discovery of P. Oxy. 2891, were one of the main sources of information about Philaenis [25] The Roman epigrammatist Martial , who wrote in the late first century AD, uses a fictional character named Philaenis in his satires, [ 15 ] [ 26 ] [ 25 ] who may have been partially based on ...
There are also some epigrams of Martial addressed to or written about Priapus; they include 85 and 90–94 in Smithers and Burton's Priapeia, as well as Martial 1.40, in which the poet asks Priapus to guard a grove of trees from thieves, threatening to use the statue of the god for firewood if he fails.