Chapter 70

'Municipes, Augusta mihi quos Bilbilis acri monte creat, rapidis quem Salo cingit aquis.'

His parents' names are given, v. 34, 1, 'Fronto pater, genetrix Flaccilla.' Martial went through the usual education at Bilbilis or at a neighbouring town; ix. 73, 7,

'At me litterulas stulti docuere parentes: quid cum grammaticis rhetoribusque mihi?'

Martial went to Rome A.D. 64, for in A.D. 98, when he left Rome, he gives the length of his stay as thirty-four years; x. 103, 7,

'Quattuor accessit tricesima messibus aestas, ut sine me Cereri rustica liba datis, moenia dum colimus dominae pulcherrima Romae.'

At Rome Martial became the client of the house of the Senecas, and was on intimate terms with L. Calpurnius Piso, Memmius Gemellus, and Vibius Crispus; xii. 36, 8,

'Pisones Senecasque Memmiosque et Crispos mihi redde sed priores.'

The failure of Piso's conspiracy in A.D. 65 and the consequent downfall of the Senecas must have affected Martial's position. In A.D. 96 Martial addresses as his patroness Argentaria Polla, Lucan's widow, the only surviving member of the family; x. 64, 1,

'Contigeris regina meos si Polla libellos,' etc.

From her he may have got the small vineyard near Nomentum which he possessed by A.D. 84 (xiii. 42 and 119).

Little is known of Martial's life before the reign of Domitian. He may have practised at the bar; cf. ii. 30, 5,

'Is mihi "dives eris, si causas egeris" inquit';

and Quintilian appears to have advised this course (ii. 90). He probably lived as a client of great houses to which he was recommended by his early-developed poetical talents. Cf. i. 113, 1,

'Quaecumque lusi iuvenis et puer quondam.'

In A.D. 80 he commemorated the opening by Titus of the Flavian Amphitheatre by a collection of poems sent to the emperor. Cf. _Spectac._ 32,

'Da veniam subitis: non displicuisse meretur, festinat, Caesar, qui placuisse tibi.'

Martial received the 'ius trium liberorum' from two of the emperors. This probably means that Titus bestowed it and Domitian ratified it. Cf. ix. 97, 5,

'tribuit quod Caesar uterque ius mihi natorum.'

Martial became a titular tribune, and consequently an _eques_, an honour probably given him by Titus; iii. 95, 9

'vidit me Roma tribunum';