Bücher von Martial

" Je m¿appelle M. Val. Martial, poëte favori des Romains. Cependant, quelle que soit ma renommée présente, j¿espère qüelle a encore à grandir dans la postérité. En effet, je me suis souvent demandé : Par quel motif refuse-t-on au poëte vivant la renommée et la gloire ? pourquoi donc tant d¿injustice chez les contemporains d¿un homme illustre ? ¿ C¿est que l¿envie ne reconnaît que les talents qui ne sont plus. C¿est ainsi que, par suite d¿une vieille habitude, nous recherchons, de préférence aux constructions modernes, l¿ombre dégradée des portiques de Pompée et le temple ruiné de Catullus. Rome lisait encore les vers d¿Ennius du vivant de Virgile ; le siècle d¿Homère faisait à peine l¿aumône au sublime vieillard ; Ménandre, l¿honneur du théâtre, n¿y rencontra que froideur et dédain ; le charmant Ovide, de son vivant, ne fut reconnu un grand poëte que par Corinne, sa maîtresse. J¿écris donc les mémoires de ma vie pour le jour où je n¿aurai plus besoin de gloire. Ma gloire n¿a donc que faire de se hâter.

A representative selection of the poems of the first-century AD epigrammatist Martial is presented in this edition, together with a very full introduction and commentary suitable for use with students. There is a strong focus on social history as well as extensive discussion of questions of literary interpretation.

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This `sampling' covers some of the usual suspects, epigrams, verse tags, scurrilous and otherwise, but it also includes a number of poems from the Liber Spectaculorum, the Book of Spectacles, devoted to poems on the Games at the Colosseum and, often, in praise of Caesar.