Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Part 46

628. On the modern Cerro de Bambola near the Moorish town of El Calatayud.

629. Cp. ix. 52, x. 24, xii. 60.

630. Cp. v. 34.

631. ix. 73. 7.

632. In x. 103. 7, written in 98 A. D., he tells us that it is thirty-four years since he left Spain.

633. iv. 40, xii. 36.

634. He is found rendering poetic homage to Polla, the wife of Lucan, as late as 96 A. D., x. 64, vii. 21-3. For his reverence for the memory of Lucan, cp. i. 61. 7; vii. 21, 22; xiv. 194.

635. Cp. his regrets for the ease of his earlier clienthood and the generosity of the Senecas, xii. 36.

636. ii. 30; cp. 1. 5:

is mihi 'dives eris, si causas egeris' inquit.

quod peto da, Gai: non peto consilium.

637. Vide his epigrams _pa.s.sim_.

638. xiii. 42, xiii. 119. Perhaps the gift of Seneca, cp. Friedlander on Mart. i. 105.

639. ix. 18, ix. 97. 7, x. 58. 9.

640. Such is the most plausible interpretation of iii. 95. 5, ix. 97. 5:

tribuit quod Caesar uterque ius mihi natorum (uterque, i.e. t.i.tus and Domitian).

641. iii. 95, v. 13, ix. 49, xii. 26.

642. iii. 95. 11, vi. 10. 1.

643. xiii. 4 gives Domitian his t.i.tle of Germanicus, a.s.sumed after war with Chatti in 84; xiv. 34 alludes to peace; no allusion to subsequent wars.

644. I, II. Perhaps published together. This would account for length of preface. II. Largely composed of poems referring to reigns of Vespasian and t.i.tus. Reference to Domitian's censorship shows that I was not published before 85. There is no hint of outbreak of Dacian War, which raged in 86.

III. Since bk. IV contains allusion to outbreak of revolt of Antonius Saturninus towards end of 88 (11) and is published at Rome, whereas III was published at _Cornelii forum_ (1), III probably appeared in 87 or 88.

IV. Contains reference to birthday of Domitian, Oct. 24 (1. 7), and seems then to allude to _ludi saeculares_ (Sept. 88). Reference to snowfall at Rome (2 and 13) suggests winter. Perhaps therefore published in _Saturnalia_ of 88.

V. Domitian has returned to Italy (1) from Dacian War, but there is no reference to his triumph (Oct. 1, 89 A. D.). Book therefore probably published in early autumn of 89.

VI. Domitian has held his triumph (4. 2 and 10. 7). Julia (13) is dead (end of 89). Book probably published in 90, perhaps in summer.

Friedlander sees allusion to Agon Capitolinus (Summer, 90) in vi. 77.

VII. 5-8 refer to Domitian's return from Sarmatic War. He has not yet arrived. These epigrams are among last in book. He returned in January 93. His return was announced as imminent in Dec. 92.

VIII. 21 describes Domitian's arrival; 26, 30, and others deal with festivities in this connexion. 65 speaks of temple of Fortuna Redux and triumphal arch built in Domitian's honour. They are mentioned as if completed. 66 speaks of consulate of Silius Italicus' son beginning Sept. 1, 93.

IX. 84 is addressed to Appius Norba.n.u.s Maximus, who has been six years absent from Rome. He went to Upper Germany to crush Antonius Saturninus in 88. 35 refers to Agon Capitolinus in summer of 94.

X. Two editions published. We possess later and larger. Cp. x. 2. 70. 1 suggests a year's interval between IX and X. X, ed. 1 was therefore perhaps published in Dec. 95. X, ed. 2 has references to accession of Trajan, Jan. 25, 98 A. D. (6, 7 and 34). Martial's departure for Spain is imminent.

XI. 1 is addressed to Parthenius, executed in middle of 97 A. D. xii. 5 refers to a selection made from X and XI, perhaps from presentation to Nerva; cp. xii. 11.

XII. In preface Martial apologizes for three years' silence (1. 9) from publication of X. ed. 2. xii. 3. 10 refers to Stella's consulship, Oct.

101 or 102. Three years' interval points to 101. It was published late in the year; cp. 1 and 62. Some epigrams in this book were written at Rome. But M. says that it was written _paucissimis diebus_. This must refer only to Spanish epigrams, or the book must have been enlarged after M.'s death.

For the whole question see Friedlander Introd., pp. 50 sqq.

645. iii. 1 and 4.

646. Cp. xi. 3.

647. xii. 21, xii. 31. There is no reason to suppose with some critics that she was his wife.

648. xii. praef. 'civitatis aures quibus adsueveram quaero.'

649. Ib. 'accedit his munic.i.p.alium robigo dentium.'

650. See p. 271. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this silence was due to dislike or jealousy.

651. Mackail, _Greek Anthol_., Introd., p. 5.

652. Domitius Marsus was famous for his epigrams, as also Calvus, Gaetulicus, Pedo, and others.

653. See p. 36.

654. See p. 134.

655. The best of his erotic poems is the pretty vi. 34, but it is far from original; cp. the last couplet:

nolo quot (sc. basia) arguto dedit exorata Catullo Lesbia; pauca cupit qui numerare potest.

656. Cp. Cat. 5 and 7; Mart. vi. 34; Cat. 2 and 3; Mart. i. 7 and 109 (it is noteworthy that this last poem has itself been exquisitely imitated by du Bellay in his poem on his little dog Peloton).

657. Cp. Ov. _Tr._ ii. 166; Mart. vi. 3. 4; Ov. _F._ iii. 192; Mart, vi.

16. 2; Ov. _A._ i. 1. 20; Mart. vi. 16. 4; Ov. _Tr._ i. 5. 1, iv. 13. 1; Mart, i. 15. 1. His imitations of other poets are not nearly so marked.

There are a good many trifling echoes of Vergil, but little wholesale borrowing. A very large proportion of the parallel pa.s.sages cited by Friedlander are unjust to Martial. No poet could be original judged by such a test.

658. There is little of any importance to be said about Martial's metre.

The metres most often employed are elegiac, hendecasyllabic, and the scazon. In the elegiac he is, on the whole, Ovidian, though he is naturally freer, especially in the matter of endings both of hexameter and pentameter. He makes his points as well, but is less sustainedly pointed. His verse, moreover, has greater variety and less formal symmetry than that of Ovid. On the other hand his effects are less sparkling, owing to his more sparing use of rhetoric. In the hendecasyllabic he is smoother and more polished. It invariably opens with a spondee.

659. Cp. vii. 72. 12, x. 3.

660. Cp. vii. 12. 9, iii. 99. 3.