‘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.’
Book xii. appeared at the beginning of A.D. 102. and shortly afterwards in an enlarged edition. An edition of all the Books probably did not appear till after Martial’s death.
For Martial’s immediate popularity, cf. vi. 61,
‘Laudat, amat, cantat nostros mea Roma libellos,
meque sinus omnis, me manus omnis habet’;