Customer Reviews

Epigrams, Volume I: Spectacles, Books 1-5 (Loeb Classical Library)

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Very few people today appreciate the rich history of obscene poetry in the classical world. The new Loeb translation, replacing the c.1911 Ker edition, does a fine job of bringing Martial up to date with the contemporary profanity and vulgarisms that were unacceptable in a scholarly work back then. Also, these Loebs are the most thrifty entre into the field, since the annotated translations are now out of print and cost several times as much when available. For all of the Latin students who chafed with Caesar and Cicero, this text, particularly Books I and IV, show what you failed to see by quitting too soon.

Just going to show that there really were rude people 2000 years ago as there are now, the Roman poet Martial left us hundreds of biting epigrams that show a talented observation of Roman society.

Martial's epigrams poke fun at many of the leading figures of his day, and were originally composed to recite aloud at his presentations. Much of what he wrote is either risque or outright obscene; Martial enjoyed exposing the adulterers and homosexuals of his day.

Martial's humor ranges from apparent to subtle. One example of one of his epigrams would be:

Hesterno fetere mero qui credit Acerram,/fallitur: in lucem semper Acerra bibit.

(Anybody who thinks that Acerra reeks of yesterday's wine misses his guess. Acerra always drinks until sunrise.)

And of course there is the epigram which is familiar to thousands of American high-school Latin students:

"Thais habet nigros, niveos Laecania dentes./quae ratio est? emptos haec habet, illa suos."

{Thais' teeth are black, Laecania's snow-white. The reason? The one has those she has bought, the other her own.)

This edition, translated by D.R. Shackleton Bailey, and published by Loeb Classical Library, is the one worth having. The translation is accurate and Bailey's footnotes are always handily at the bottom of the page to clear up details of Latin usage (Martial from time to time uses puns which don't translate).

The other reviewer here is right. If Cicero and Virgil are too stuffy for you, Martial provides quite the incentive for dilligently pursuing Latin. I'm certainly happy I took advantage of high school for it.

D.R. Shackleton Bailey brings us a fresh and vibrant prose translation of Martial's clever, humorous and bawdy Epigrams. Bailey's crowning achievement lies in his illuminating footnotes and in his clear-cut translation which reads like poetry when digested; for his prose rendition is still very rythmic, full of vigor and imagery. Now, Martial's poems tell us much of ordinary life in first century Rome and reveal also a bit of the obscene and the ridiculous. And even if his lines do at times wax a little profane, we may exonerate Martial if his testimony is true, when he proclaims "my page is wanton, but my life is clean." Overall, the Epigrams carry a satirical charm that is purely characteristic of Rome and extremely enticing to the Latin enthusiast.

I received this in the mail recently and have been enraptured. The quality of the binding and the paper was the first thing I noticed. On opening the book, I was pleased to see a good quality, readable typeface, and a continuity in the ink that promised an unobstructed read. Thos familiar with the subject matter will know the Martial is a brilliant satirist and epigrammatist, and provides the modern reader not only a histerical historical view, but a potent and contemporary snapshot of the foibles of human folly.