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

Martial (Author), D. R. Shackleton Bailey (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0674995554 | ISBN-13: 978-0674995550

Written to celebrate the 80 CE opening of the Roman Colosseum, Martial's first book of poems, "On the Spectacles," tells of the shows in the new arena. The great Latin epigrammist's twelve subsequent books capture the spirit of Roman life in vivid detail. Fortune hunters and busybodies, orators and lawyers, schoolmasters and acrobats, doctors and plagiarists, beautiful slaves and generous hosts populate his witty verses. We glimpse here the theater, public games, life in the countryside, banquets, lions in the amphitheater, the eruption of Vesuvius. Martial's epigrams are sometimes obscene, sometimes affectionate and amusing, and always pointed. Like his contemporary Statius, though, Martial shamelessly flatters his patron Domitian, one of Rome's worst-reputed emperors.

Shackleton Bailey's translation of Martial's often difficult Latin eliminates many misunderstandings in previous versions. The text is mainly that of his highly praised Teubner edition of 1990 ("greatly superior to its predecessors," R. G. M. Nisbet wrote in Classical Review).

These volumes replace the earlier Loeb edition with translation by Walter C. A. Ker (1919).

Editorial Reviews

Review

The publication of a new edition in the Loeb Classical Library of the poems of Martial--Latin verse and English prose face à face...offers an occasion for thinking about the way Martial's presence shows itself in English poetry and about the poet in person...A reliable English version is always good to possess and here we have one that gives us access to many a dark and difficult corner of the original Latin.
--Charles Tomlinson (New Criterion )

Shackleton Bailey's is a remarkable achievement, and from now on his 'Loebs' will be the best means by which anyone can get to know Martial, as well as the essential first work of reference for scholars.
--P. Howell (Classical Review )

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Latin

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Loeb Classical Library (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674995554
• ISBN-13: 978-0674995550
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 0.8 x 6.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Martial's skewering epigrams are brilliantly funny reading June 24, 2001

By Christopher Culver TOP 1000 REVIEWER

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Martial--Rome's Profane Poet February 7, 2006

By Johannes Platonicus VINE™ VOICE

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good printing, good layout, great material May 16, 2007

By zigzagzilla

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.