Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis

satirist · Roman Empire · 40?–104?

A poet from Hispania who lived in a rented room in Rome, leaned on patrons and wrote some 1,500 short, biting epigrams.

Posts

c. AD 86

I do not like you, Sabidius, and I cannot say why. This is all I can say: I do not like you.

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare: hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.

Epigrams 1.32

c. AD 86

The little book you recite, Fidentinus, is mine. But when you recite it badly, it begins to be yours.

Quem recitas meus est, o Fidentine, libellus: sed male cum recitas, incipit esse tuus.

Epigrams 1.38

c. AD 86

Diaulus was lately a doctor; now he is an undertaker. What he does as an undertaker, he did as a doctor too.

Nuper erat medicus, nunc est vispillo Diaulus: quod vispillo facit, fecerat et medicus.

Epigrams 1.47

c. AD 90

You will always be poor, Aemilianus, if you are poor now. These days wealth is given to no one but the rich.

Semper pauper eris, si pauper es, Aemiliane. Dantur opes nullis nunc nisi divitibus.

Epigrams 5.81

c. AD 94

You admire only the old poets, Vacerra, and praise none but the dead. Forgive me, Vacerra, but it is not worth dying just to please you.

Miraris veteres, Vacerra, solos nec laudas nisi mortuos poetas. Ignoscas petimus, Vacerra: tanti non est, ut placeam tibi, perire.

Epigrams 8.69