M. Valerius Martialis (Coquus is added in the old glossaries) was born at Bilbilis in Hispania Tarraconensis on 1st March in one of the years A.D. 38-41. His tenth Book, written A.D. 95-8, contains a poem (x. 24) written on his fifty-seventh birthday. Cf. ll. 4-5,
‘quinquagesima liba septimamque
vestris addimus hanc focis acerram’;
ix. 52, 3,
‘ut nostras amo Martias Kalendas’;
x. 103, 1,
‘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.’