xi. 3, 3,
‘Sed meus in Geticis ad Martia signa pruinis
a rigido teritur centurione liber,
dicitur et nostros cantare Britannia versus.’
Pliny Ep. iii. 21 (written just after Martial’s death), ‘Erat homo ingeniosus acutus acer, et qui plurimum in scribendo et salis haberet et fellis nec candoris minus.’
Martial’s Models.—His manner is very original, but some of his motives are taken from Greek epigrammatists, especially from Lucillius, who flourished under Nero. Thus iv. 53 = Lucill. 30; v. 53 = L. 93; xii. 23 = L. 34. Many of his pieces are doubtless improvisations, and consequently contain careless expressions and errors as to facts. Thus, vii. 61, 2,
‘Inque suo nullum limine limen erat’;
x. 2, 1,
‘Festinata prior decimi mihi cura libelli
elapsum manibus nunc revocavit opus’;
x. 93, 5,
‘Ut rosa delectat, metitur quae pollice primo’
(= the rose which has not yet been plucked).
In iv. 55, 3, Arpi is given as Cicero’s birthplace; in v. 30, 2, etc., Calabria instead of Apulia is given as Horace’s native district. Catullus is Martial’s chief model for hendecasyllabics and choliambics. He mentions no other poet so often. Cf. x. 103, 5,