Chapter 71

'Sum, fateor, semperque fui, Callistrate, pauper, sed non obscurus nec male notus eques.'

Martial is unsparing in his flattery of Domitian and his freedmen. Cf. ix. 79, iv. 45, of Parthenius, the emperor's chamberlain; vii. 99, viii. 48, of Crispinus, the emperor's favourite. In A.D. 86 we find his poems eagerly read by the emperor. Cf. iv. 27,

'Saepe meos laudare soles, Auguste, libellos.'

He obtained citizen rights for several applicants; cf. ix. 95. 11,

'Quot mihi Caesareo facti sunt munere cives';

and was occasionally invited to the emperor's table; cf. ix. 91. Domitian, however, refused to assist him pecuniarily (vi. 10). A description of Martial's life as a client of great houses is found, _e.g._, in v. 20. Among the friends of high rank whom Martial made after A.D. 86 were the poet Silius Italicus (iv. 14), the future emperor Nerva (v. 28), the author S. Iulius Frontinus (x. 58), the younger Pliny (x. 19). Martial also mentions Quintilian (ii. 90) and other literary men from Spain, and Juvenal (vii. 24, etc.). Statius he never mentions, and was probably at enmity with him; cf. his sneers at mythological epics (x. 4, etc.), which hint indirectly at the _Thebais_. Martial also attacks his critics (i. 3; xi. 20, etc.), plagiarists (_e.g._ xi. 94), and those who wrote scurrilous verses in his name (_e.g._ x. 3).

Martial received rewards in return for his poetry, and often begs for gifts, and complains of his poverty and the unproductiveness of his estate at Nomentum (xii. 57); v. 36,

'Laudatus nostro quidam, Faustina, libello dissimulat, quasi nil debeat: imposuit';