At Rome Martial became the client of the house of the Senecas, and was on intimate terms with L. Calpurnius Piso, Memmius Gemellus, and Vibius Crispus; xii. 36, 8,
‘Pisones Senecasque Memmiosque
et Crispos mihi redde sed priores.’
The failure of Piso’s conspiracy in A.D. 65 and the consequent downfall of the Senecas must have affected Martial’s position. In A.D. 96 Martial addresses as his patroness Argentaria Polla, Lucan’s widow, the only surviving member of the family; x. 64, 1,
‘Contigeris regina meos si Polla libellos,’ etc.
From her he may have got the small vineyard near Nomentum which he possessed by A.D. 84 (xiii. 42 and 119).
Little is known of Martial’s life before the reign of Domitian. He may have practised at the bar; cf. ii. 30, 5,
‘Is mihi “dives eris, si causas egeris” inquit’;
and Quintilian appears to have advised this course (ii. 90). He probably lived as a client of great houses to which he was recommended by his early-developed poetical talents. Cf. i. 113, 1,
‘Quaecumque lusi iuvenis et puer quondam.’
In A.D. 80 he commemorated the opening by Titus of the Flavian Amphitheatre by a collection of poems sent to the emperor. Cf. Spectac. 32,