He is not a great poet; but he is a writer of real power both in thought and style. In his introductions to each Book, and in his digressions, he shows sincere feeling and poetical ability.
M. VALERIUS MARTIALIS, circ. 40-102 A.D.
1. Life.
MARTIAL.
He was born at Bilbilis in Hispania Tarraconensis (E. Spain), a town situated on a rocky height overlooking the R. Salo:
Municipes, Augusta mihi quos Bilbilis acri
Monte creat, rapidis quem Salo cingit aquis.
X. ciii. 1-2.
His father gave him a good education, and at the age of twenty-three (63 A.D.) he went to Rome. After living there for thirty-five years, patronised by Titus and Vespasian, he returned to Bilbilis soon after the accession of Trajan (98 A.D.), where he died circ. 102 A.D.
At Rome he for a time found powerful friends in his great countrymen of the house of Seneca (Lucan and Seneca were then at the height of their fame), and from 79 to 96 (temp. Trajan and Domitian) he received the patronage of the Court, and numbered among his friends Pliny the Younger, Quintilian, Juvenal, Valerius Flaccus, and Silius Italicus. His complaints of his poverty are incessant. It is true that he lived throughout the life of a dependent, but it is probable that Martial was a poor man who contrived to get through a good deal of money, and who mistook for poverty a capacity for spending more than he could get.