2. Works.
Epigrammata in fourteen Books (Books XIII and XIV, Xenia and Apophoreta, are two collections of inscriptions for presents at the Saturnalia); also a Liber Spectaculorum on the opening of the grand Flavian amphitheatre (the Coliseum) begun by Vespasian and completed by Titus.
3. Style.
‘Martial did not create the epigram. What he did was to differentiate the epigram and elaborate it. Adhering always to what he considered the true type of the literary epigram, consisting of i. the preface, or description of the occasion of the epigram, rousing the curiosity to know what the poet has to say about it; and, ii. the explanation or commentary of the poet, commonly called the point—he employed his vast resources of satire, wit, observation, fancy, and pathos to produce the greatest number of varieties of epigram that the type admits of. . . . What Martial really stands convicted of on his own showing is of laughing at that which ought to have roused in him shame and indignation, and of making literary capital out of other men’s vices.’—Stephenson. Among his good points are his candour, his love of nature, and the loyalty of his friendships.
Pliny says of him: Audio Valerium Martialem decessisse et moleste fero. Erat homo ingeniosus, acutus, acer, et qui plurimum in scribendo et sltis haberet et fellis, nec candoris minus—I hear with regret that V. Martial is dead. He was a man of talent, acuteness, and spirit: with plenty of wit and gall, and as sincere as he was witty.—Pliny, Ep. iii. 21.
‘The greatest epigrammatist of the world, and one of its most disagreeable literary characters.’—Merrill.
CORNELIUS NEPOS, circ. 100-24 B.C.
1. Life.
NEPOS.
Nepos was probably born at Ticinium on the R. Padus. He inherited an ample fortune, and was thereby enabled to keep aloof from public life and to devote himself to literature and to writing works of an historical nature. In earlier life he was one of the circle of Catullus, who dedicated a collection of poems to him (Catull. C. i.): ‘To whom am I to give my dainty, new-born little volume? To you, Cornelius.’ He was also a friend and contemporary of Cicero, and after Cicero’s death (43 B.C.) was one of the chief friends of Atticus.