THE EPIGRAMS OF MARTIAL
BOOK EIGHT
Marcus Valerius Martialis (AD 38/41-102/4) was a Roman poet born in Bilbilis in Hispania Tarraconensis (Tarragonese Spain) of Spanish stock. He lived in Rome from 64 to ca. 100, then returned home. His Epigrams, much his most celebrated and substantial work, were published in Rome in twelve books, and have since been very highly valued for both their wit and what they reveal about life in Rome. Presented here are all references to Greek love in Book VIII, published in 93 or 94.
The translation, the first in English to include frank translation of passages considered obscene by modern people, is by D. R. Shackleton Bailey for the Loeb Classical Library volumes 95, published by the Harvard University Press in 1993. Older translations either omitted the sexually most interesting epigrams or, much worse, misled as to their content by omitting or distorting critical phrases. The webpage editor would like to draw attention to the footnotes (all of them this website’s) as being particularly important for this article, at least for readers not deeply familiar with Roman customs.
39
In an epigram addressed to the Emperor Domitian, one of whose titles was Germanicus, on his recently-finished palace on the Palatine Hill:
| Formerly there was no place large enough for the banquets and ambrosial repasts of the Palatine board. Here, Germanicus, you may fitly drink sacred nectar and cups mixed by the hand of a Ganymede.[1] I pray it may be long before you choose to dine with the Thunderer.[2] As for you, Jupiter, if you cannot wait, come yourself. | Qui Palatinae caperet convivia mensae ambrosiasque dapes non erat ante locus: hic haurire decet sacrum, Germanice, nectar et Ganymedea pocula mixta manu. esse velis oro serus conviva Tonantis: at tu si properas, Iuppiter, ipse veni. |
44
In an epigram admonishing the elderly Titullus to enjoy his money while he still has time, for when he dies …
| your sorrowing son, whether you like it or not, will sleep the first night with your catamite. | tuoque tristis filius, velis nolis, cum concubino nocte dormiet prima. |
46
| Boy Cestus[3], more chaste than pure Hippolytus, your modesty is equalled by your surpassing beauty.[4] Diana would wish you to swim with her and would be your teacher,[5] Cybele would rather have had you than her womanish Phrygian.[6] You could have succeeded to Ganymede’s bed, but in your cruelty you would have given your master naught but kisses. Happy the bride-to-be that shall torment her tender husband, the girl that shall first make you a man! | Quanta tua est probitas, tanta est praestantia formae, Ceste puer, puro castior Hippolyto. te secum Diana velit doceatque natare, te Cybele molli mallet habere Phryge; tu Ganymedeo poteras succedere lecto, sed durus domino basia sola dares. felix, quae tenerum vexabit sponsa maritum et quae te faciet prima puella virum! |
55
A narrative of the life of the poet Vergil. When he had been despoiled of his land…
| the Tuscan knight[7] smiled and drove back malignant Poverty, telling her be off and quickly. “Take riches and be greatest of poets,” he said; “you may even love my Alexis.”[8] That beauteous lad was standing by his master’s board pouring the dark Falernian[9] with a hand as white as marble and offering goblets tasted by rosy lips, lips that might stir Jove himself. The astonished poet forgot buxom Galatea and Thestylis with her red cheeks tanned by the harvests.[10] Forthwith he conceived [Vergil’s greatest works are then named]. | risit Tuscus eques paupertatemque malignam reppulit et celeri iussit abire fuga.‘ accipe divitias et vatum maximus esto; tu licet et nostrum’ dixit ‘Alexin ames.’ astabat domini mensis pulcherrimus ille marmorea fundens nigra Falerna manu, et libata dabat roseis carchesia labris, quae poterant ipsum sollicitare Iovem. excidit attonito pinguis Galatea poetae Thestylis et rubras messibus usta genas; protinus [...] concepit [...] |
63
| Aulus loves Thestylus, hut has no less of a passion for Alexis; and perhaps he now loves my Hyacinthus.[11] Doubt if you can that friend Aulus loves the poets themselves, when he loves the poets’ darlings. | Thestylon Aulus amat sed nec minus ardet Alexin, forsitan et nostrum nunc Hyacinthon amat. i nunc et dubita vates an diligat ipsos, delicias vatum cum meus Aulus amet. |
73
In an epigram pleading for a loved one to inspire him to great poetry:
| […] My poetry neither the Paelignians nor Mantua will spurn, if I find a Corinna or an Alexis.[12] | […] non me Paeligni nec spernet Mantua vatem, si qua Corinna mihi, si quis Alexis erit. |
Continue to Book IX
[1] Ganymede was a beautiful boy whom Jupiter, the king of the gods, fell in love with and abducted to Mount Olympos where he was made cupbearer to the gods, serving them nectar, their special drink. That the Emperor Domitian was served by beautiful boys he loved was public knowledge he saw no reason not to celebrate rather than hide. He patronised Martial and his fellow poet Papinius Statius both of whom published flattering poems about Earinus, a eunuch and his apparently favourite boy.
[2] This sentence means Martial wishes it will be a long time before Domitian leaves the world of mortals to dine with his fellow god, the Thunderer (Jupiter) on Mount Olympos.
[3] From an epigram soon following, VIII 50, it appears that Cestus was a puer delicatus (pleasure-boy) belonging to one Instantius Rufus.
[4] Hippolytos was a son of Theseus, the most famous mythological King of Athens. He was sworn to chastity and died as an indirect consequence of rejecting with deep horror his step-mother’s advances.
[5] The goddess of hunting, Diana, was famously hostile to males who threatened her virgin status.
[6] The goddess Cybele was in love with the Phrygian Attis, who died from castrating himself.
[7] The “Tuscan knight” was C. Cilnius Maecenas (68-8 BC) of Etruscan lineage and the equestrian order, the friend of the Emperor and most important patron of Vergil.
[8] Alexis, a much loved slave-boy of Virgil (who made him a loved boy in his 2nd Eclogue) was given to him (who “was especially given to passions for boys” according to Suetonius’s life of him) by Maecenas, also known to love boys.
[9] Falernian was a fine white wine.
[10] Galatea and Thestylis were girl characters in Vergil’s Eclogues IX and II, in whom Martial is implying that Vergil lost interest when he met his greatest love, the boy Alexis, of whom he made a more notable character as a loved-boy in his Eclogues II and VII.
[11] The centurion Aulus Pudens, a poetry- and boy-loving, married, friend of Martial, was mentioned in many epigrams. Thestylus was the subject of VI 29 above as the puer delicatus of Martial’s friend and fellow poet, Voconius Victor. Alexis could be a living puer delicatus or the boy loved by the poet Vergil or a metonym for Vergil’s Eclogues, which he inspired. Hyacinthus was apparently Martial’s own puer delicatus. His name, that of Apollo’s loved-boy celebrated for being turned into a flower, was unsurprisingly frequently bestowed on pueri delicati, perhaps as often as Ganymede.
[12] The Paeignians were the countrymen of the poet Ovid, whose source of inspiration was his mistress Corinna, Mantua was the birthplace of the poet Virgil, whose source of inspiration was his loved boy Alexis, and either would welcome Martial as their local poet if he could find a similar source of inspiration. Celebrating one’s love for a boy in published poetry is thus a means of winning a high reputation.
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