Chapter 72

'Aera domi non sunt, superest hoc, Regule, solum, ut tua vendamus munera: numquid emis?'

From 86 to 90 A.D. Martial lived in lodgings on the Quirinal, three stairs up; i. 117, 6,

'Longum est, si velit ad Pirum venire, et scalis habito tribus, sed altis.'

Later he had a house of his own (ix. 18, 2, etc.), and mentions his slaves (i. 101; v. 34, etc.). That he was still poor in A.D. 98 is evident from Pliny, _Ep._ iii. 21, 2, 'Prosecutus eram viatico secedentem: dederam hoc amicitiae, dederam etiam versiculis quos de me composuit.'

Martial was evidently never married (ii. 92). In A.D. 98 he left Rome and went to Spain, where he had liberal friends, as Terentius Priscus (xii. 4), and Marcella (xii. 21), who gave him an estate, described in xii. 18. From xii. praef. we see his longing for Rome:

'In hac provinciali solitudine ... bibliothecas, theatra, convictus ... desideramus quasi destituti. Accedit his municipalium robigo dentium et iudici loco livor,' etc.

Martial died, at latest, about A.D. 104, being from 63 to 66 years old.

Pliny _Ep._ iii. 21 (written not after A.D. 104), 'Audio Valerium Martialem decessisse et moleste fero.'

Martial does not disguise the bad points of his character. Cf. his flattery of Domitian, and his continual begging (_passim_), his cynical reasons for giving panegyrics (v. 36, quoted above); the number of indecent poems he wrote, for which he apologizes (_e.g._ i. praef.). Among his good points are his 'candor,' mentioned by Pliny, _Ep._ iii. 21; his love of unadorned nature, _e.g._ iii. 58; his love for his friends, _e.g._ i. 15.

(2) WORKS.

_Publication of the Poems._--_Liber Spectaculorum_ was published A.D. 80, on the opening of Titus' Amphitheatre. The _Xenia_ and _Apophoreta_ were two collections of inscriptions for presents at the _Saturnalia_ in December 84 or 85 A.D. The numbering of these as Books xiii. and xiv. has no ancient authority. Martial furnished the other Books with numbers (cf. ii. 92, 1, 'primus liber'). Books i., ii., appeared together A.D. 86. Then came Books iii.-xi. at intervals of about a year to December, 96 A.D. Martial prepared a selection from Books x. and xi. for Nerva's use (no longer extant). This was presented along with xii. 5,

'Longior undecimi nobis decimique libelli artatus labor est, et breve rasit opus. Plura legant vacui, quibus otia tuta dedisti; haec lege tu Caesar; forsan et illa leges.'