Tag Archives: Martial

More Teaching Texts: 12 Martial, 1 Seneca

I have just uploaded Twelve Easy Epigrams of Martial (link): probably the easiest dozen epigrams of Martial, with notes for sight-reading, and an introductory page explaining how to use them. I hope they will prove useful to those teaching Latin … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Two More Seneca Commentaries

I have added two more commentaries on selected Epistulae Morales of Seneca to my list: Schafer 2009 and Berti 2018. If anyone knows of others I have missed, please let me know: I have a feeling I’ve seen one or … Continue reading

Posted in Announcements, Commentaries | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A Minimal Solution for a Ruined Punchline: Martial 12.50.2

    Martial describes a selfish rich man’s estate (12.50):(1) Daphnonas, platanonas et aerios pityonas     et non unius balnea solus habes, et tibi centenis stat porticus alta columnis,     calcatusque tuo sub pede lucet onyx, pulvereumque fugax hippodromon ungula plaudit,     et pereuntis aquae … Continue reading

Posted in Curculio: Latin | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“We’ve Made It Legal, but We Can’t Make It Right” (Martial 5.75)

    Any problems in this little poem are exegetical – there are no significant variants: Quae legis causa nupsit tibi Laelia, Quinte,     uxorem potes hanc dicere legitimam. As a punch-line, the pentameter, particularly the last word, seems rather flat. I suspect … Continue reading

Posted in Curculio: Latin, Exegesis, Latin Literature, POTIS | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

An Unlikely Source

Facts about the ancient world, even when mentioned in ancient texts, are not always found in the texts we would think of consulting first, or second, or at all. In his commentary on Martial I, Peter Howell refers (205) to … Continue reading

Posted in Latin Literature, Philosophy | Tagged | Leave a comment

Scholastic Humor

In Martial: Select Epigrams (Cambridge ‘green and gold’, 2003), Lindsay and Patricia Watson include 4.87 (71 in their numeration): Infantem secum semper tua Bassa, Fabulle,     conlocat et lusus deliciasque uocat, et, quo mireris magis, infantaria non est.     ergo quid in … Continue reading

Posted in Exegesis, Latin Literature | Tagged | 1 Comment

Spooneristic Misreading

After my trip to the U.N.C. library, I’ve been leafing through Toto Notus in Orbe, Perspektiven der Martial-Interpretation (ed. Farouk Grewing, Palingenesis LXV, Stuttgart, 1998). One sentence in T. J. Leary’s paper on the Xenia and Apophoreta caused a double-take. … Continue reading

Posted in Latin Literature, Nachleben | Tagged | 3 Comments

Martial’s Dexiocholus

The word dexiocholus, ‘lame in the right leg’, though securely attested in Martial 12.59.9, is not to be found in either the Oxford Latin Dictionary or Liddell-Scott-Jones: no doubt each editorial team thought it could safely be left to the … Continue reading

Posted in Latin Literature | Tagged | 4 Comments

Macaulay On Martial

I have now gone through the first seven books of Martial, and have learned about 360 of the best lines. His merit seems to me to lie, not in wit, but in the rapid succession of vivid images. I wish … Continue reading

Posted in Latin Literature, Nachleben | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Martial IV

It’s too early to party, but I have uploaded the first e-fascicle of an electronic text of the complete epigrams of Martial: Book IV, with a few textual novelties, an original selection of variants and conjectures, and an apparatus criticus … Continue reading

Posted in Announcements, Critical Texts, Latin Literature | Tagged | Leave a comment

A Riddle And A Pun

What would be the most appropriate dish to serve at a party celebrating the publication of a book on Martial, or the Priapea, or some other scurrilous and scoptic classic? Crudités, of course.

Posted in Jokes, Latin Literature | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Scholastic Humor

Found on Amazon: Martial, Buch VI: Ein Kommentar (Hypomnemata) by Farouk Grewing Availability: Currently unavailable. It is in fact still in print in Germany, for only 89 Euros — around $107 — in paperback, and worth every penny. For more … Continue reading

Posted in Jokes, Latin Literature | Tagged | Leave a comment