Marc Valery Martial is a famous Roman poet, famous for his epigrams. It was in his work that the epigram became what we now understand by this literary term. He lived in the 1st century AD. His books and works have survived to the present day.
The biography of the poet
Marc Valery Martial was born in the city of Bilbis, today it is located on the territory of modern Spain in the area of Bambola Hill. According to researchers, he was born between 38 and 41 years of our era, it is not possible to establish his date of birth more precisely.
It was possible to establish approximately the time of the birth of the Roman poet Marc Valery Martial from one of his epigrams, which he wrote in the late 90's. e. In it, the author mentions the March Calends as his birthday (that is, March 1), clarifying that he is 57 years old. In addition, Mark Valery Martial repeatedly called himself a Celtiber from Belbil, which serves as an additional confirmation of his place of birth.
The poet often writes with special love about his small homeland in his poems. It was there that he received his primary education, learned rhetoric and grammar. In 64, he was sent to Rome, allegedly to become a lawyer.
In the capital, he manages to quickly establish relations with famous fellow countrymen, among them the philosopher Seneca with his nephew, poet Lucan. At this time, the reign of Nero was coming to an end , the emperor was afraid of betrayal, repression was raging in Rome. In 65, the government announced the disclosure of the anti-Niron plot. Seneca and Lucan, on the orders of the emperor, open their veins, as the investigation established their involvement in the conspiracy.
After these events, the life of Mark Valery Martial changes for the worse. He lives in poverty, receiving money from his wealthy patrons.
Nero fell
In 68, dissatisfaction with the rule of Nero reached its climax. The Senate declared him an enemy of the people and announced his intention to put to public execution. In his country villa, the emperor cut his throat.
The new ruler of Rome was Servius Sulpicius Galba Caesar Augustus. True, he stayed in power for only six months. The period began of a whole series of rulers who did not stay long in the place of the emperor, leaving no significant traces in history.
Fortune began to accompany Roman poet Mark Valery Martial only after Titus Flavius Vespasian came to power in 79, as well as during the reign of Titus Flavius Domitian. It was under Titus that Martial became a popular writer, and under Domitian, fame and popularity finally came to him.
At this time, the poetry of Mark Valery Martial appreciated and loved by Roman citizens and colleagues. He draws closer to the poet Celius Italik, rhetorician Quintilian, magistrate and lawyer Pliny the Younger. The satirist Juvenal and Martial communicated closely with each other. He often mentions his educated fellow countrymen in his works, it is among them that he finds patrons and admirers of his talent.
Through influential freedmen who are close to the court, he brings his works to the emperors.
Epigram Collection
The first collection of epigrams of Mark Valery Martial was published in the year 80. It was written on the occasion of the grand opening of the Flavian Amphitheater, the Coliseum. The publication of the collection brought fame to the author, and the emperor granted an honorary reward. Marcial received privileges that the Romans, who had three sons, could use.
The privileges received by the poet under Titus under Domitian were only expanded. Marcial received the title of horseman, becoming the representative of one of the privileged Roman estates. True, this did not bring significant prosperity, but allowed to live without feeling the need. In the area of Nomentan, he was able to acquire his own estate, and in Rome to settle in the house.
"Hotels" and "Gifts"
By the year 84, two more well-known books of poems by Mark Valery Martial were published - "Hotels" and "Gifts". Starting from the year 85, he almost every year publishes collections of epigrams, which are very successful. At this time, his financial situation is improving, however, this does not directly depend on the sale of books. His wealth is primarily due to the patronage of wealthy friends.
It was incredibly difficult to make money on literature in Rome, since then there was no concept of copyright. The work, published, automatically became public domain, anyone could send it to correspondence and start selling again. True, exactly how things were with the payment of fees for literary works is unknown. It is only obvious that it was impossible to live on such an income. This reflection is also found in the work of Martial:
They say to me like you, Fidentin, my writings
You recite to everyone as if he himself wrote them.
If you admit for mine, I'll give you poetry for nothing,
Kohl for yours - buy: you will get the right to them.
So, despite the popularity and popular recognition, Mark Valeria Martial, whose biography is given in this article, continues to lead a client lifestyle.
In 88, the poet embarks on a long and distant journey to the Cornelius Forum in Gaul of Cisalpia. There comes the third book of his epigrams. Returning to Rome, Martial no longer leaves him until the emperors become Nerva and Trajan. With them, he fails to gain favor. Therefore, in 98, he was forced to leave the city in which he had already lived for 34 years. He goes to his small homeland, to Spain, where he remains until the end of his life.
In recent years, the poet spends under the auspices of the wealthy Marcella, who gives him an estate near Bilbila. There he spends his last days. And in 101, the last book of epigrams by Marc Valery Martial was published. In collections, it is located at number 12.
The poet presumably dies in 101 or 102, but certainly no later than 104 AD. When the news of his death reaches Rome, Pliny the Younger writes in one of his messages that he grieves about this talented, caustic and sharp man, whose verses had a lot of bile, salt and sincerity. Now you know who it is - Mark Valery Martial.
Surviving images
Several images have survived to our time, on which you can get an idea of how the hero of our article looked.
Firstly, it is Martial's verbal self-portrait, which is contained in the 65th epigram of the tenth book. The work emphasizes his characteristic, such as the "Celtiberian", the iconic character of a lush hairstyle on his head. In ancient sculpture and graphics, the image of Martial can be found in scroll books, which, as a rule, contained not only texts, but also drawings. According to the German philologist Otto Crusius, voiced in 1896, in numerous ancient scrolls, a painted portrait of Martial was often placed. One of the books mentioned that his mask adorned the library of a young Roman aristocracy.
In 1814, a portrait of the poet appeared, reproduced by the London edition. The figure of Apirion depicts the unshaven Martial. There is also a photograph of a sculptural portrait, made already in the XX century. It depicts a bronze bust of the hero of our article, which is installed in his small homeland in the Spanish town of Calatayud. Its author was the sculptor Juan Cruz Melero, who died in 1986. Now you know who it is - Mark Valery Martial.
Creativity of the Roman poet
An outstanding Roman poet named Martial, whose poetry was loved by many of his contemporaries, left 3 books united by one theme, they are called “Gifts”, “Spectacles” and “Gifts”. He also owns 12 books of mixed content. Among them, the book "Spectacles" stands out especially, the poems in which are called epigrams, but refer exclusively to games dedicated to the opening of the Colosseum in the year 80. In total, Mark Valery Martial left behind 15 books of epigrams.
Interestingly, two of them are epigrams of a completely special kind. They consist of couplets that are designed to accompany gifts. They were then sent to friends, and then exchanged on the Saturnalia festival, which was celebrated in December.
For example, the collection called Gifts was devoted to exclusively edible-type offerings, the collection Gostinits - gifts that were usually given after the end of the festive meal, and the guests took them with them. As a rule, these were useful and even useless trinkets, household items, pictures, small figurines, works of famous writers of that time.
Marcial is a poet who has left behind a vast legacy. His main 12 books are examples of the so-called classic heritage of epigrams. He wrote nine of them under the emperor Domitian, and even devoted one entirely to this emperor. He published books 11 and 12 under Nerve and Trajan, when he was already not so in demand and appreciated by the authorities. Mark Martial sent his last book of epigrams to Rome from Spain.
In his work, the poet used not only the old classical Greek samples, which were long and well known and studied by Roman authors, but also new Latin techniques. You can also find philosophical reflections in his works:
In the strongest midst of Diana Caesar’s only
That in a pig pig a spear quickly settled.
The piglet jumped from the poor mother’s wound.
Evil Lyutsina, does this really mean giving birth?
She wished she died from many copies,
If only this sad path was open to all children.
From the works of his predecessors, the epigrams of Martial are different in that they have metric diversity. Together with the elegiac distich, he actively uses as many as seven different poetic sizes.
In those days, everyone knew who it was - Martial. He stood out among other poets with a large thematic variety of works. They met literary statements, personal comments, a description of the poet's environment, objects and phenomena, landscape sketches. In some of his poetic works, he glorified contemporaries, rulers and historical figures, openly flattered the emperors and his influential and wealthy patrons, while at the same time he expressed sorrow over the death of close and famous personalities.
The creativity of the Roman poet is of great interest from the point of view of studying the history and life of Rome at that time. Today, many aspects of life have been restored just by the works of Martial. His poems have always been distinguished by realism, the ability to clearly and accurately depict the smallest details, and he was able to express all this masterfully in a perky, bright and short epigram. Thanks to his poetic gift, the poet became not only the founder of the epigram in the modern sense of this genre, but also one of the most prominent poets of our time. In total, Martial has 1,561 epigrams.
Encyclopedia of Roman life
Just as critics called the poetic novel "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin "an encyclopedia of Russian life," so Martial’s work can be called an encyclopedia of Roman life and customs. In his poems, the poet immerses us in the atmosphere of Rome in the second half of the 1st century AD.
After the end of the civil war, when the emperor Octavian Augustus took power, about a century passed. Throughout the first century of our era, the Eternal City is headed by a large number of emperors with the most diverse character of government. After the relatively mild regime that existed under Vespasian and Titus, who recognized the rights of the Senate, Domitian came to power. He obliges his subordinates to add the words "master and god" to himself. It was on his reign that the flowering of Martial's creativity comes.
The poet describes in detail the life and life that reigns in the city. It is worth recognizing that this was one of the few Roman writers who deliberately refuse in their work large-scale philosophical problems, abstractions, divorced from life. Instead, he chooses to preach the common sense of a mentally full person who remains true to himself, even when surrounded by moral permissiveness. Due to this, the hero of our article in his poems manages to get rid of hypocrisy, to freely use all kinds of poetic means, guided only by the principle of "where you need and how much you need." This is where the so-called "obscene" epigrams come from, which at the same time do not produce a repulsive impression, including even cases when Martial openly blames his addressees in the most obscene way, scolding them.
In his poems, Martial is not afraid and does not hesitate to call people and phenomena by their proper names, completely not caring about the likely negative consequences of this. The content of all his 12 books of epigrams is very diverse. In them, he touches on various circumstances of life, painting a vivid and realistic picture of life and customs of the second half of the first century in the Roman Empire.
Flattery and debauchery
In the works of Martial, two aspects should be especially distinguished. This is an image of sexual licentiousness, which often comes to complete shamelessness, as well as groveling and flattery before wealthy citizens and gods. Taking into account that such poems belong to one of the first poets of his era, whom his contemporaries of both sexes read with enthusiasm, we have to admit that at that time literature was not very moral, this is one of the characteristic features of society since the time of Emperor Domitian.
There is no dirt in only one book of Martial, which he devoted entirely to Domitian himself, deliberately eliminating any obscenities that were present in a large number of other books. But it is this book that is saturated with patterns of flattery.
Justifying a large number of obscenities in his texts, Martial, in the preface to the first book of epigrams, alluded to his predecessors, for example, to Catullus, whom many considered the founder of the Roman erotic epigram. In addition, as the hero of our article noted, he seeks to write in the language of his readers who have a craving for shamelessness, love unbridled holidays and pageantry. At the same time, Martial did not hide the fact that his epigrams may not be attractive to all readers:
I would, Flaccus, not want such a lean friend,
On whose hands could my rings be worn,
The one with a scrub and a prick piercing with its knees.
With a saw a ridge protruding from top to bottom with a spear.
But I wouldn’t want a friend in a thousand pounds either,
I definitely love the body, but I'm not greedy for fat.
Obviously, a person who adheres to strict morals himself will not so often touch upon the subject of vulgarity and debauchery in his work. For Martial, this is not only a surefire way to gain popularity, but also a method of mocking, emphasizing the attitude of certain individuals to this very phenomenon.
There are several scandalous facts from the biography of the poet himself, which can be restored from some of his poems. But at the same time, one should not forget that the boundaries of decency are different in different eras, so what in our time may seem vulgar and unacceptable was commonplace in the days of Martial.
If we return to the topic of flattery to the emperors in the poet’s work, and especially to Domitian, it is worth noting that not only the hero of our article behaved in a similar way at that time. The same type of work was written by his rival and contemporary of Stacius, who was also considered an outstanding poet. However, they themselves never mentioned each other. Even Quintilian, for reasons of personal security, considered it necessary to flatter such an emperor as Domitian. But no one was able to do it as masterly as Martial. His flattery in some cases was so rude and unnatural that he could even be suspected of overt mockery, double bottom. But when political circumstances change, Martial already praises the successors of Domitian, and reproaches the emperor himself, glorifying, for example, Nerva.
It is noteworthy that the poet himself in his epigrams sometimes was condescending to undisguised flattery, noting that verses without "vinegar" are of no interest to anyone.
Such statements can be found in the works of Mark Valery Martial. The quotes only confirm this:
Sweet ones alone you always write epigrams;
They have more shine than blush on their faces.
Salt is not a grain there, bitter bile there is not visible drop.
Still, madman, you wait for them to be read.
But since there is no vinegar, and the food itself is unpleasant;
If the smile is dead, not a pretty face.
You can give an apple of honey and figs tasteless to the child;
Well, give me a chi fig - it has a tongue prick.
Poetic virtues of Martial
Researchers include the development of the epigram genre, which appeared in Rome during the time of Cicero, to the unconditional artistic merits of the author. But all the poets who worked in this genre never specialized entirely in it. For example, Catullus and Calv used it to fight their literary and political enemies.
Martial himself has repeatedly admitted that he is inferior in the epigram to Catullus, whom he even tried to imitate, but it was he who brought the Roman epigram to absolute perfection. When Petronius decorates his main work with poetic inserts, one can also see parodies of the style of Marc Valery Martial in Satyricon.
In purely literary terms, the works of the hero of our article are the work of a major poet of his time. He finalized the Roman epigram, satire began to appear in it, Martial used elegy techniques, experimented with dimensions.
He became a recognized master of medium and small poetic form, easy and easy improvisation. His language is crisp and clear, he is unlike the artificial rhetoric that was so prevalent at that time in Rome. His main techniques were antitheses, maxims, parallelism, repetitions, all this harmonized with his author's style. In the epigram genre, he excelled all his contemporaries.
In Martial, the epigram takes on all kinds of shades, it can be a simple poetic inscription on the subject, or it can turn into a witty and virtuoso playful joke. In them you can find the most diverse plots of everyday life. In the end, the hero of our article belongs to the primacy in the epigram, as Horace in lyric, and Virgil in epic poetry. Of course, this comparison does not put him on a par with these poets. But it is in the writing of the epigrams that he deservedly gets the first place, and this is easy to see if you read at least a couple of dozen works by Mark Valery Martial. Quotes are a direct confirmation of this:
You sold a slave yesterday for twenty thousand sisters,
Kalliodor, to arrange a magnificent dinner for guests.
Only lunch was bad: a four pound barbecue
You filed; in this one is salt and table bait.
I want to shout: villain, not a fish here at all, not a fish,
There is a man here, and you, Kalliodor, you devoured him!
Assessment of the works of Martial
Not a single Roman poet who wrote epigrams was read with such ecstasy and desire as Martial. He had a huge number of fans, plagiarists and imitators. From his works, one can imagine the scale in which various poets presented their works as his creations.
They read well knew the works of Martial, and he himself was well aware of his popularity, because even in Britain and the ancient Roman wilderness, as he himself claimed in his epigrams, he was read and admired. If the so-called “serious” types of poetry, such as tragedy or epic, were opposed to him, then he always, proud of the popularity of his works, replied that everyone only praised the epic and tragedy, and read it.
Already in the eighth book of epigrams, the hero of our article, quite in the spirit of Horace, begins to predict immortality for himself. As it turned out, this prophecy, however, like Horace, came true. The works of both are well known today and translated into many languages.
After the death of Martial Pliny, who respected his work, wrote that he was waiting for immortality and glory. It continued to be read, appreciated and reprinted throughout the Roman Empire for a long time. For example, it is known that an emperor named Elias Ver, who was the adopted son of Adrian, always kept at his fingertips the epigrams of Martial along with Ovid's “Art of Love”. These books lay at the head of his bed.
Starting from the 4th century, Martial writers began to quote actively, and many poets imitate him. In the Middle Ages, his work was well known for its many anthologies, it was even read by popes, bishops and priests, despite the fact that the texts had a lot of obscenities. Already in the XIV century, Giovanni Boccaccio published the manuscript he found with epigrams of Martial, which was previously unknown. In the Renaissance, this was one of the most widely read authors, whose work had a great influence on the development of the European epigram.
The poet of the 18th century Lessing took it as a model, building on the works of the hero of our article his own epigram theory. Goethe, Schiller, Vyazemsky were interested in the works of Martial. Loved Martial and Alexander Pushkin. Well-known poem by Joseph Brodsky "Letters to a Roman friend", which has the subtitle "From Martial".