Author: MARTIAL
Biography:
MARTIAL (c. 40- c. 104: Harvey)
Marcus Valerius Martialis—so named because he was born on the 1st of March according to Harvey—was a native of Bilbilis in Spain who moved to Rome, like his countrymen Seneca and Lucan before him, in 64 and earned a sometimes precarious living there as a poet, taking commissions, writing for patrons, and issuing books. His primary subject was urban life itself, and the habits and manners of the citizens. The emperors Titus and Domitian were among his patrons. He gained the privilege of equestrian status, but not a steady income. Eleven books of his celebrated epigrams appeared between 86 and 98, and a twelfth in 102. Everything that is known about his personal life is based on internal evidence. He apparently did not marry. In 98 he returned to Bilbilis, to a farm given him by a patroness, and died there about 104. The two English translators of the works listed here, James Elphinston and William Scott, have their own headnotes. (Harvey; Encyclopaedia Britannica 17: 788; NBG 33, cols. 1014-16) HJ