SOURCE: "Martial's Catullus" in Martial's Catullus, Heorg Olms Verlag, 1994, pp. 33-46.

[In the following excerpt, Swann calls attention to Martial's numerous references to Catullus, especially those allusions in which the younger poet names Catullus as his chief literary model.]

Naming Catullus

… Martial names a 'Catullus' at least twenty-five times and, though there is doubt in five cases as to which 'Catullus' Martial meant, in twenty of the cases it is clear.⁵ Six times the association is with Lesbia (6.34.7; 7.14.3; 8.73.8; 12.44.5, 59.3; 14.77.1); five times it is with the word passer (twice at 1.7.3-4; 1.109.1; 4.14.13; 11.6.16); and twice it is with Verona (10.103.5; 14.195.1). Three times Martial links Catullus with the epithet doctus (7.99.7; 14.100.1, 152.1), three times with Marsus (pref. 1; 2.71.3; 5.5.6), and once Martial simply compares himself to Catullus (10.78.16).⁶ In these passages Martial consistently treats Catullus as a Roman poet, some of whose works were more well known than others, but a poet who, as Martial indicates, wrote epigrams just as he is doing. There is no indication that Martial considered Catullus as an extraordinary poet of love. He had loved a certain Lesbia to be sure in his poems, but other poets had loved in their poems as well, a fact which Martial does not hesitate to mention (Mart. 8.73; 12.44).

In several of the six cases in which Lesbia is mentioned, for example, she is simply Lesbia, amica Catulli (7.14.3), who was in love cum lepido … Catullo (12.44.5), who was dilecta Catullo (14.77.1), or who dictavit, docte Catulle, tibi (8.73.8). In two other cases Lesbia is connected with the basia of Cat. 5 and 7. In 6.34 Martial speaks to Diadumenus and Diadumenus and concludes:

nolo quot arguto dedit exorata Catullo
 Lesbia: pauca cupit qui numerare potest.⁷

I do not want as many as Lesbia when persuaded gave to eloquent Catullus—he wants few kisses who can count them.

The same tie with Lesbia and kisses occurs at 12.59.1-3:

Tantum dat tibi Roma basiorum
post annos modo quindecim reverso
quantum Lesbia non dedit Catullo.

Rome is giving you just now returned after fifteen years, more kisses than Lesbia gave Catullus.

At 11.6.14, one of the five poems which mention the passer of Catullus, the kisses are simply Catullan: da nunc basia, sed Catulliana. In other cases the connection is with the famous passer poems (1.7.3; 1.109.1; 14.77).⁸ In three instances Martial links Catullus' name with Verona, his birthplace, (again in 1.7; 10.103.5; 14.195), and in one case we assume that Catullus is intended (at 1.61.1: Verona docti syllabas amat vatis). The association with Catullus is particularly significant at 10.103. After thirty-four years away from his birthplace Martial was anticipating his return to Bilbilis. He tells the municipes that Verona would want Martial, by reason of his fame, to be called its own as much as it calls Catullus its own—and if they do not appreciate this fact, he can always return to Rome.⁹

ecquid laeta iuvat vestri vos gloria vatis?
 nam decus et nomen famaque vestra sumus,
nec sua plus debet tenui Verona Catullo
 meque velit dici non minus illa suum.
Excipitis placida reducem si mente, venimus;
 aspera si geritis corda, redire licet.
(10.103.3-6, 11-12)

Does the happy renown of your poet please you? For I am your honor, reputation and renown, nor does Catullus' own Verona own more to its own fine poet and it would want me to be called its own no less. If you take me back gladly on my return, I am coming; if you bear me ill will, I can leave again.

Since this poem was written near the end of his career and his return to Bilbilis, Martial was not idly comparing himself with whatever poet came to mind. Rather he was making a point that he was in fact comparable to Catullus in fame, contemporary popularity, and in the bond between poet and hometown. Martial made these comparisons with a poet who was famous for writing the sort of poems that he had written, and he expressed himself in terms that his readers could understand: the comparison was between Martial and Catullus, two writers of epigram. This was the view which Martial repeatedly emphasized (as will be seen below) both early and late within his career.

The epithet doctus is another means of identifying Catullus which Martial used, and it is one that is often noted. J. Ferguson has written that:

Martial values Catullus first for his 'learning'. Doctus, contrary to what is sometimes said, is more than a stock epithet for a poet; it is peculiarly applied to Catullus, and marks him out as the leading poet of the neoteric school, which adapted Alexandrian poetry to Latin.¹⁰

It would be useful for the work at hand if Martial's use of doctus were another instance of his singling out Catullus vis-a-vis his own work. But after examining the passages where Martial uses doctus of Catullus, it is not immediately clear how Ferguson's view can be the case.¹¹ In Book 14, poems 100 and 152 were written for a Panaca and a Gausapum quadratum (a 'drinking vessel' and a 'woolen cloth'). In each case the reference is geographical in intent and was meant to identify the terra docti Catulli. At 8.73.8, docte Catulle identifies Catullus as one of a number of poets who were inspired by a beloved someone. Each name bears an epithet or a descriptive noun. In line 7 it is arguti … Tibulli. Catullus elsewhere is also argutus (6.34.7). The epithets are not mutually exclusive. The intent of the poem is not a statement of literary criticism but Martial's request da quod amem.¹² Lastly, in the doctoque Catullo at 7.99.7 Martial associates Catullus with Marsus and expresses the hope that he may be included in the company of these two. The poem which concludes Book 7 offers Martial's suggestion to Crispinus that Martial nec Marso nimium minor est doctoque Catullo.¹³ None of these examples seems to reveal Martial's concern with Catullus as "the leading poet of the neoteric school." In fact, it is difficult to see how doctus is in any way unique to Catullus when one also finds docti Senecae (4.40.2), docti Pedonis (2.77.5), docti nota Neronis (8.70.8), and doctoplaceas Apollinari [a literary critic] (4.86.3). The Muses were doctae sorores (1.70.15, 9.42.3) and doctas … Pieridas (10.58.5-6). One also finds, among other things, docta Neapolis (5.78.14). Paukstadt was nearer the truth in claiming that Martial used doctus because Ovid had already done so (Amores 1.15.27) and that it was metrically convenient.

et si Martialis tam saepe epitheton doctus cum Catullo coniungit, non coniungit ea de causa, quod Catullum studiosum Graecarum litterarum praedicare voluit… sed quod paene constanter hoc adiectivum Catullo a prioribus poetis, qui eum citant, adtributum esse et facile in versum inire videbat.
(Paukstadt, 8-9)

And if Martial joined the epithet doctus with Catullus so often, he did not do so for the reason that he wanted to proclaim Catullus as learned in Greek literature … but because he saw that this adjective is almost constantly attributed to Catullus by the earlier poets who mention him and he saw that it was metrically convenient.

Paukstadt in fact continues this thought by pointing out Martial's disfavor for the only one of the longer poems that he mentions written more Alexandrinorum:

Carminum longiorum, quae Catullus more Alexandrinorum composuit, ad unum tantum adludit, ad Attin, cum dicat, talia carmina se non scribere. II, 86, 4. Nec dictat mihi luculentus Attis I Mollem debilitate Galliambon.
(p. 9)

He alludes to only one of the longer poems which Catullus wrote in the style of the Alexandrians, the Attis, when he says that he does not write such poems. II, 86, 4. Nor does the brilliant Attis instruct me to write in galliambics, soft with infirmity.

Where Martial associates Catullus with familiar images (Lesbia, basia, Verona, and the doctus poeta), he is clearly referring to Catullus, the poet. Martial's associations of Catullus with Marsus (and others) will be examined below. The twentieth example at 10.78.16 is one where Martial mentions Catullus without any epithet. He bids farewell to Macer (also mentioned in 5.28 and 10.181171.6), who is leaving to become governor in Dalmatia.¹⁴ At the same time he speaks of his return to Spain and his desire to be considered by Macer as second to none but Catullus.

nos Celtas, Macer, et truces Hiberos
cum desiderio tui petemus.
sed quaecumque tamen feretur illinc
piscosi calamo Tagi notata,
Macrum pagina nostra nominabit:
sic inter veteres legar poetas,
nec multos mihi praeferas priores,
uno sed tibi sim minor Catullo.
(10.78.9-16)

I will return to the Celts and fierce Hiberians with longing for you, Macer. But nevertheless, whatever page will be brought from there, written with a reed from the fish-filled Tagus, it will bear your name, Macer. So let me be read among the poets of old; nor should you prefer many earlier ones to me, but let me be a lesser poet to you than Catullus alone.

In these examples the pattern remains consistent. Martial treats Catullus as he treats other authors, and in terms that were familiar to the readers of epigram. Although Martial did not propose to imitate all that Catullus had written, he considered him a significant epigrammatist with whom he did not at all mind being compared. What Martial says about Catullus and his epigrams will next concern us.

Martial on Catullus and his poetry

Martial's affinity for Catullus is also prominent, as might be expected, in his statements about Catullus' poetry and the extent to which he made use, often a selective use, of Catullan material. These instances will now be examined. One of the earlier and more direct statements occurs in the Preface of Book 1. Martial addresses his readers and positions himself and his writings with respect to Catullus and others.

Spero me secutum in libellis meis tale temperamentum ut de illis queri non possit quisquis de se bene senserit, cum salva infimarum quoque personarum reverentia ludant; quae adeo antiquis auctoribus defuit ut nominibus non tantum veris abusi sint sed et magnis […] lascivam verborum veritatem, id est epigrammaton linguam, excussarem, si meum esset exemplum: sic scribit Catullus, sic Marsus, sic Pedo, sic Gaetulicus, sic quicumque perlegitur.

I hope that I have used in my books such a tone that whoever thinks well of himself is not be able to complain about them, since they have their fun with a healthy respect even for lesser people. This respect was so lacking in earlier authors that they misused the names not only of the actual people but also those of important people […] I would make an excuse for the lusty frankness of my vocabulary if I were setting the example—thus Catullus writes, and Marsus, Pedo, Gaetulicus, so anyone writes who is thoroughly read.

Martial is making two main points: "first he makes it absolutely clear that he is not going to attack real people; secondly, he defends himself against the charge of indecency."¹⁵ As to writers who had attacked 'real people' Martial is, Howell continues, "presumably thinking of Naevius, of Lucilius … and above all, of Catullus."¹⁶ Catullus' attacks on Mamurra and Julius Caesar (Cat. 29 and 57) are perhaps the most notable examples. Suetonius reports Catullus' reconciliation with Caesar (Iul. 73), but for Martial there may not have been the luxury of a second chance, so there is a distinct moderation in the hostility of the attack.¹⁷ Catullus freely admits to his harsh iambic verses¹⁸ while Martial goes out of his way to distance himself from direct attacks and to insist that, although hominem pagina nostra sapit (10.4.10), still mea nec iuste quos odit pagina laesit (7.12.3). After all, continues Martial,

quid prodest, cupiant cum quidam nostra
  videri,
  si qua Lycambeo sanguine tela madent,
vipereumque vomat nostro sub nomine virus,
  qui Phoebi radios ferre diemque negat?
ludimus innocui: scis hoc bene …
(7.12.5-9)

What good is it, when certain people want them to seem to be mine, if any barbs are wet with Lycambes blood, and a man spits out his venom in my name who says he cannot bear sunshine and daylight? I am a harmless person at play, you know this well …

The reference to Archilochus in line 6 (Lycambeo sanguine) points to the sort of invective Martial wished to avoid, but at the same time it indicates how much a risk his poetry ran of being of being so classified.¹⁹ It is perhaps not without significance to note that Gaetulicus, perhaps the poet whom Martial named (Bk. 1 pref.), wrote an epigram concerning the tomb of Archilochus.²⁰ The defence against charges of indecency also recalls Catullus:

qui me ex versicuiis meis putastis,
quod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum.
nam castum esse decet pium poetam
ipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est.
(16.3-6)

[Aurelius and Furus] you think me not sufficiently chaste because of my poems, the fact that they are sensual. It is all right for a responsible poet to be decent himself; in no way is it required that his poetry be.

Martial specifically refers to his own lascivam verborum veritatem as the linguam epigrammaton. He uses lascivus to describe both the eroticism within elegy as well as that within his own epigrams.²¹ The latter usage occurs early in Book 1.

qua Thymelen spectas derisoremque
  Latinum,
  illa fronte precor carmina nostra legas.
innocuos censura potest permittere lusus:
lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba.
(1.4.5-8)

I ask that you read our poems with that frame of mind with which you watch Thymele and the mime Latinus. The censor can allow harmless jests; my book is racy, my life clean.

This certainly suggests the thought of Cat. 16 and that of Ovid's vita verecunda est, Musa iocosa mea,²² as does 11.15.13, mores non habet hic meos libellus. Martial expresses the same idea in the preface to Book 8 while explaining that this book will not have his usual playfulness.

quamvis autem epigrammata a severissimis quoque et summae fortunae viris ita scripta sint ut mimicam verborum licentiam adfectasse videantur, ego tamen illis non permisi tam lascive loqui quam solent.

Although epigrams have been written by the sternest men of the highest rank in such a way that they seem to have imitated the mime's loose language, nevertheless I have not permitted these to speak as lustily as they are accustomed.

Martial takes it for granted that readers realize that even these severissimi viri can write works that have the mimicam verborum licentiam.

Catullus et Alii

The writers with whom Martial associates Catullus are also indicative of his understanding of Catullus as an epigrammatist. We have just seen in the preface to Book 1 how Martial cites the example of Catullus, Marsus, Pedo and Gaetulicus in an attempt to excuse his lascivam verborum veritatem. They, and anyone who is perlegitur, use the epigrammaton linguam.²³ Martial mentioned Gaetulicus only here,²⁴ but Albinovanus Pedo's name occurs again three times: twice coupled with Marsus (see below), and once (10.201191.10) in referring to the domus Pedonis which was near Pliny's house, whither Martial was 'sending' Thalia with his book.²⁵ The references to Pedo which also include Marsus are more concerned with epigrams. At 2.77 Martial berates the writings of one Cosconius²⁶ who thinks Martial's epigrams are long.

disce quod ignoras: Marsi doctique Pedonis
  saepe duplex unum pagina tractat opus.
non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere
  possis,
  sed tu, Cosconi, disticha longa facis.
(2.77.5-8)

Learn what you do not know. Often a double page of learned Marsus and Pedo handles a single poem. Those things are not long from which there is nothing you can delete; but, Cosconius, you make distichs long.

The message is clear: the quality of the content matters more than any rules regarding the length of a work. That poem (epigram) which occupies even two pages is not long if it would suffer by any deletions. Cosconius, by this standard, cannot write a distich without its seeming long. Marsus and Pedo are the epigrammatists of choice here. Several years later, in Book 5, Martial again joins Catullus with Marsus and Pedo.

sit locus et nostris aliqua tibi parte libellis,
  qua Pedo, qua Marsus quaque Catullus
  erit.
ad Capitolini caelestia carmina belli
  grande cothurnati pone Maronis opus.
(5.5.5-8)

Let there be a place somewhere for my works, where Pedo, Marsus and Catullus will be. Place the splendid work of tragic Vergil next to the divine poems of the Capitoline war.

Martial is asking of Sextus, the cultor facundus Palatinae Minervae (the librarian of the collection in the temple of Minerva on the Palatine), a place for his works—a place with Pedo, Marsus and Catullus. Martial again associates all three writers with himself and his writings. In the preface to Book 1 the connection among the poets is the lascivam verborum veritatem or the epigrammaton linguam, whereas here it is an actual shared location within the collection. Martial takes special pains to separate himself from the writers of epic. We can only assume that he likens his own writings to those with whom he would be filed. Later, in Book 12 Martial established these two genres at the opposite ends of the literary spectrum.²⁷

Scribebamus epos; coepisti scribere: cessi,
aemula ne starent carmina nostra tuis.

audemus saturas: Lucilius esse laboras.
  ludo levis elegos: tu quoque ludis idem,
quid minus esse potest? epigrammata fingere
  coepi:
  hinc etiam petitur iam mea palma tibi.
(12.94.1-2, 7-10)

I began writing epics; you started to write them. I stopped so that my poems would not rival yours … I attempt satires; you work at being Lucilius. I dabble in light elegies, you do the same. What can there be of less significance? I started writing epigrams; here too my victory is sought by you.

The same contrast between epic and epigram is found at the end of 8.55(56). In this case, Martial explores the connection between the great poets and their patron, Maecenas, and concludes by telling Flaccus that, with the right inducements, he would still be a Marsus, that is he would still write his epigrams:

ergo ego Vergilius, si munera Maecenatis
  des mihi? Vergilius non ero, Marsus ero.
(8.55[561.23-24)

So will I be a Vergil if you give me the incentives Maecenas gave? I will not be a Vergil, I will be a Marsus.

Martial expresses the epigrammatic connection between Catullus, Marsus (above p. 37, n. 13), and himself several other times. In 2.71 Martial addresses a Caecilianus and suggests that he would rather the poems of Caecilianus seem inferior to his own than that those of Marsus or Catullus should seem so.

Candidius nihil est te, Caeciliane. Notavi,
 si quando ex nostris disticha pauca lego,
protinus aut Marsi recitas aut scripta Catulli.
 hoc mihi das, tamquam deteriora legas,
ut conlata magis placeant mea? Credimus
  istud:
  malo tamen recites, Caeciliane, tua.

Nothing is more frank than you, Caecilianus. I have noticed that, if ever I read a few lines of my poems, right away you answer with the works of Marsus and Catullus. Are you suggesting that my poems by comparison are more pleasing, as if you were reading worse things. I believe it; still, Caecilianus, I prefer you to read your own.

Martial is doubtless pleased to have his epigrams and those of Catullus and Marsus so closely associated, and to be favored by the comparison, but the point for the present work is that the association of the three as writers of epigram is taken for granted. The same idea occurs even more clearly stated at 7.99. Martial suggests to Crispinus what he should say to Domitian should his poems be read at court.

dicere de nobis ut lector candidus aude:
  'Temporibus praestat non nihil iste tuis,
nec Marso nimium minor est doctoque
  Catullo.'
hoc satis est: ipsi cetera mando deo.
(7.99.5-8)

Dare, as a forthright reader, to speak about me: 'This man confers not a little on your reign, nor is he much less than Marsus and skilled Catullus.' This is enough, the rest I resign to the divine Domitian himself.

With more modesty Martial here adopts a position second to Marsus and Catullus, but one that is nec nimium minor. The literary figures with whom this writer of epigrams here compares himself are Marsus and Catullus; the figure who is a constant in all these comparisons is Catullus.

Martial et Alii

However predominant the relation between Martial and Catullus appears in these passages, one must remember that Martial was also dependent upon a number of other writers for material, and that he mentioned many of them in his poems.²⁸ Vergil for example is named as frequently as Catullus by Martial and verbal echoes of Vergil abound, but to Martial Vergil is clearly the Roman poet.²⁹ He is magnus Maro (4.14.14, 11.48.1, 12.67.5), summus Maro (12.3141.1), and aeternus Maro (11.52.18). At the same time Martial bemoans the recent neglect of the resting place of Vergil's ashes (11.50[491) and the popularity of Ennius at the expense of Vergil (5.10.7). Although Martial notes how Verona and Mantua are equally fortunate in their bard (14.195) and wishes that someone would play Maecenas to him (1.107), he sets himself (and Catullus) apart from Vergil in 5.5 as we have seen. Again, Martial is addressing Sextus, who had access to Domitian as secretary a studiis and who was also librarian of the Palatine, and asks him for a place for his own works—a place with Catullus and others. Vergil, on the other hand, is placed with the carmina belli of Domitian.³⁰ Therefore, while the reputations of Vergil and Catullus are equally important to their cities of origin and the impact of their work is a consistent feature of Martial's epigrams, Martial is careful to align himself in this epigram with Catullus and to avoid the epic company of Vergil and Domitian.³¹

Now that it is clear to what extent Martial distanced his own poems and those of Catullus from the works of Vergil while continuing to make equal use of the reputation of each poet, the significance of Martial's references to Ovid may be viewed with more appreciation. Ovid, as Friedlaender emphatically observed, was very important for Martial's elegiacs.³² More recently however the emphasis on the impact of Ovid is somewhat diminished. After pointing out Martial's indebtedness to Catullus, Kay remarks simply that "of other literary figures Ovid may have written epigrams."³³ Whatever the count of other verbal echoes, Martial names Ovid in but five poems and alludes to him in one other (8.73). One reference is a generic plural for "poets in Rome" (Nasones Vergiliosque vides at 3.38.10); the others involve the Metamorphoses (14.192), Corinna and/or the Paeligni (1.61.6; 5.10.10; 8.73.9-10; 12.44.6). In none of these cases does Martial refer to Ovid as a model for his poetry as he refers to Catullus. Nor for that matter does he set himself apart from Ovid as he does from Vergil. While the number of verbal reminiscences which Zingerle and others have noted is certainly not without significance for demonstrating whom Martial had read and how often these authors came to his mind (whether consciously or not), their impact is not as direct on the reader, ancient or modern, as is the impact of the passages already cited by means of which Martial tells his reader what he is doing. In the case of Catullus, Martial not only borrows extensively from him but he also names him as his model, whereas he declines to name Vergil and Ovid as models however many times he names them or makes use of their works.…

Notes

…⁵ Wiseman, Catullus and his World (Cambridge 1985) 189, 192ff. discusses the possibility of the identification of C. Valerius Catullus with Catullus the mimographer (Mart. 5.30.3 and 12.83.4). The occasions where Martial mentions an unknown Catullus in a non-specific context are 6.69.1 and 12.73.1-2. In the first case martial addresses Catullus and tua Bassa, in the second instance, again addressed to a Catullus, the reliability of a possible inheritance is mentioned: heredem tibi me, Catulle, dicis. / non credam, nisi legero, Catulle-not an uncommon theme or concern for Martial who frequently deals with captatio. See Kay's note at 11.44, and Mart. 2.40; 4.56; 5.39; 6.62, 63; 8.27; 9.8(9), 48; 11.44, 55, 67, 83; 12.40, 90.

⁶ In some of these passages Martial may mention more than one of these Catullan points of reference (e.g., 1.7 has both the passer and Verona, and 7.99 both calls Catullus doctus and mentions Marsus), so Martial may actually refer to Verona or use the epithet doctus more frequently than this listing would indicate. The additional references will be apparent in the examination of the passages which follows.

⁷Basia and Diadumenos also occur at Mart. 3.65.9; 5.46.1-3. The name is from a statue of Polykleitos and "fur ein Non plus ultra jugendlicher Sch6nheit galt" (Friedlaender, 3.65.9).

⁸ These three references occur early in the works of Martial (Friedlaender I, pp. 50ff.). Two other references to a passer Catulli are later and more ambiguous. One, sic forsan tener ausus est Catullus / magno mittere Passerem Maroni (4.14.13-14), uses passer as a "Titel des Buchs des Catull" (Friedlaender, ad loc.); the other, donabo tibi Passerem Catulli (11.6.16), offers "precise references … [which] are difficult to establish" (Kay, ad loc.). Kay suggests three interpretations: passer as (1) sparrow, (2) poems, or (3) mentula, and argues convincingly for the third. See also Howell, 1.7, and additional remarks there by Giangrande, who reopened this question in recent times in "Catullus' Lyrics on the passer," Museum Philologum Londiniense 1 (1976) 137-46 [=Scripta minora Alexandrina 4 (Amsterdam 1985) 487-96].

⁹ Much the same thought was expressed years earlier at 14.195, though in this case the relation is between Catullus and Vergil and the emphasis is on the similar 'size' of their fame as contrasted with the difference in size of their cities of origin: tantum magna suo debet Verona Catullo, / quantum parva suo Mantua Vergilio [As much as great Verona owes its Catullus, so little Mantua owes Vergil].

¹⁰ J. Ferguson, "Catullus and Martial," PACA 6 (1963) 7.

¹¹ Newman, RomC, pp. 18-24 emphasizes Plautus' use of doctus as callidus and malus, then details Catullus' use of doctus and that of Lucretius and Cicero. He concludes (24) that Catullus "is doctus because he knows how to play on our feelings, because he has the dexterity in words that recalls a pantomime artist's nimbleness in the dance allied to the worldly wisdom of a courtier (better, a court jester) and the insight of a philosopher."

¹² Martial's litany includes: Propertius/Cynthia, Gallus/Lycoris, Tibullus/Nemesis, Catullus/Lesbia, Ovid/Corinna, and Vergil/Alexis. Note that no particular attention is drawn to Catullus/Lesbia to differentiate them from any of the other pairs. This is also one case where Martial notes a difference between Catullus and himself. At 8.73.8 it was Lesbia who dictavit, docte Catulle, tibi, while Martial (12 pref.) attributes anything that pleases in his books to the fact that dictavit auditor.

¹³ Marsus, an Augustan writer of epigrams (a book entitled the Cicuta) and epic (an Amazonis), is grouped with Catullus and others as epigrainmatists in the preface to Book I by Martial. A few fragments survive in C. Buechner, Fragmenta poetarum Latinorum (Leipzig 1982) 141-3; Schanz-Hosius, II, pp. 174-76. Crispinus was also mentioned by Juvenal at 1.27, 4.1ff., and 4.108 though of course Juvenal's treatment of him is far different. Martial was forced to deal with Crispinus directly, Juvenal was not. W. S. Anderson has "sketched out the lines of the controversy" of the relation between Martial and Juvenal in his "Lascivia vs. ira: Martial and Juvenal," California Studies in Classical Antiquity 3 (1970) 1-34 [=Essays on Roman Satire (Princeton 1982) 362-395].

¹⁴ Cf. Propertius 1.6, the farewell to a departing official. See Menander Rhetor, eds. D. A. Russell and N. G. Wilson (Oxford 1981) 126-9 for different kinds of the propemptikon, and F. Cairns, Generic Composition in Greek and Roman Poetry (Edinburgh 1972) 7-10, who examines this passage of Menander.

¹⁵ Howell, p. 96 includes Horace with Juvenal and Persius who "all feel obliged to apologise for not attacking real people (see E. J. Kenney, "The First Satire of Juvenal," PCPhS 8 (1962) 29-40 …" On the other hand Quintilian (1.O. 10.1 96) and Diomedes (Keil, GL I, 485, 11-17) count Horace among iambographers (cf. Newman, RomC, p. 46, n. 15). J. C. Bramble, Persius and the Programmatic Satire (Cambridge 1974) 196 allows Horace to have it both ways: "Horatian iambics are divided against themselves. At Epod. VI. 13-14, Horace likens himself to the savage Archilochus … yet later, in the theoretical Ep. I.19-23ff., he follows Lucilius and Callimachus in disowning malevolence"; so too of the satires (198): "in Sat. II. 1 he adopts an ambiguous stance, at one moment a pacifist, at another, an aggressor."

¹⁶ In "The Poet Cn. Naevius, P. Cornelius Scipio and Q. Caecilius Metellus," Antichthon 3 (1969) 32-47, H. D. Jocelyn reviewed the stories that "the poet Naevius had suffered police action of some kind for criticizing men of state," and found that "support is given to the view that they contain elements of truth" (33). For Lucilius, see W. Krenkel, Lucilius Satiren (Leiden 1970) I, pp. 22-23: "Freunde und Feinde."

¹⁷ M. Coffey, Roman Satire (London 1976) 98 refers to some of the hazards of the writer who either made or seemed to have made unwarranted statements about the emperor or others. While there is not "any justification for including Martial among the Roman satirists" (Coffey, p. 7), the hazards would have been the same.

¹⁸ Cat. 36.5, 40.2, 54.6 and frag. 3. While Quintilian admits that iambus non sane a Romanis celebratus est ut proprium opus and that it was aliis quibusdam interpositus, he does classify Catullus as one who had the acerbitas of the iambic (1.O. 10.1.96). Whether or not Horace was justified in claiming Parios ego primus iambos / ostendi Latio (Ep. 1.19.23-4) is a matter of some dispute. Catullus as scriptor lyricus was Jerome's statement (Chronica 150H). For other ancient passages mentioning Catullus in this light see Wiseman, Catullus: Appendices, esp. "V lambics and Invective."

¹⁹ Friedlaender, 7.12: "wie hier klagt M. auch VII 72 X 3; 5; 33 darüber, dass unter seinem Namen giftige Schmahgedichte veroffentlicht wurden."

²⁰Anth. Pal. 7.71. For estimonia on Lycambes, his daughters and Archilochus see M. L. West, Iambi et elegi Graeci I (Oxford 1971) 15.

²¹ For elegy: lascivus elegis an severus herois? (3.20.6) and Cynthia te vatem fecit, lascive Properti (8.73.5). In 12.94 elegy and epigram are at the lower end of the scale of genres.

²² Ovid Tr. 2.354. Some seventy lines later Ovid points out that Roman authors, as well as the Greeks, have had some less than serious things to say about love. Romanus habet multa iocosa liber (2.422). Among these Ovid includes lascivus Catullus who wrote not only of the femina, cui falsum Lesbia nomen erat (2.428), but of many other loves as well in quibus ipse suum fassus adulterium est (2.430). For Ovid the point that is worth making does not concern 'Lesbia', but the fact that Catullus revealed suum adulterium, though Catullus uses the word pejoratively of others (e.g., 66.84; 67.36; 78.6). Ovid's apparent lack of an appreciation for the 'romantic' forces which Lesbia unleashed in Catullus—forces which have, for some reason, only been rightly perceived in the last century—is shared by Martial and, as we hope to demonstrate, by many others.

²³ That is, indecent language and content "since the form of the epigram was so commonly used for erotic subjects" (Howell, p. 98). Recall Cat. 16.5-6.

²⁴ Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus (cos. 26 AD) was killed by Caligula; see Skutsch, RE IV (1900) 1384-86. Perhaps he is the author of nine epigrams in the Greek Anthology, one of which, 11.409, deals with a woman who drank too much. She is not unlike Martial's Phyllis who, on the morning after, renews her kisses in hopes of receiving more wine (12.65).

²⁵ Thalia, "die Muse des Epigramms" (Friedlaender, 4.8.12). At 7.17.4 she is lascivae Thaliae (cf. lascivam veritatem of the preface to Book 1). It is better not to disturb Pliny during the day, Martial says, wait until the carefree evening hours when his epigrams are more appropriate.

²⁶ Friedlaender, 2.77.1: "ob aber an eine wirkliche Person zu denken ist, erscheint zweifelhaft."

²⁷ A similar listing at 3.20 is not as orderly. In 12.94, says Coffey, p. 5, Martial "lists the genres in descending order of nobility (and size)."

²⁸ See for example Zingerle and E. Wagner.

²⁹ Vergil's name appears in 19 of Martial's poems with at least one indirect reference to him (8.73.9). Catullus appears in 17 poems, once in the preface to Book 1, and in four poems where the reference is not necessarily to Catullus Veronensis.

³⁰ Friedlaender, 5.5.1: "Sextus scheint hiernach das Amt a studiis bei Domitian bekleidet zu haben und zugleich Bibliothekar gewesen zu sein" (Sextus appears according to this to have occupied the position in charge of learning and to have been at the same time librarian); (v. 7): "Domitian hatte hiernach ein Gedicht uber den Kampf um das Capitol im December 68, wobei er selbst in Gefahr gewesen war, verfasst." Or, was it an epic on the Gigantomachy (Newman, RomC, p. 79, n. 11)?

³¹ This passage itself may be ascribed simply to Martial's delicate position in addressing Domitian, a position which would become still more precarious for Martial. Book 5 was published in the year 89, the year after which H. Szelest, "Domitian und Martial," Eos 62 (1974) 113 noted the change in Martial's approach to Domitian: "indessen finden wir in den früher, d. i. bis zum Jahre 90 entstandenen Büchern 17 von 23 Epigrammen, welche Ausserungen enthalten, die den Herrscher unwilling stimmen konnten, wahrend nur 6 in den spater ver6ffentlichten auftauchen." As for Vergil, the epic poet par excellence, Martial had also ascribed a less serious side to him in the Apophoreta (14.185).

³² "Im elegischen Distichon schliesst sich M. zunachst an den grossten Meister dieser Form, Ovid, an. Ihm ist er in der Unerschopflichkeit des Reichthums an Motiven und Wendungen, in der Fille, Zierlichkeit und Glatte des Ausdrucks, in der Eleganz des Versbaus, auch in der Neigung zur Selbstwiederholung, sowohl der stofflichen als der formellen, verwandt" (Friedlaender I, p. 25). Zingerle's work, which Friedlaender notes, is perhaps, by virtue of its strengths, responsible for the emphatic nature of his remark.

³³ Kay, p. 13. Kay is circumspect in the commentary: "M. seems here to be borrowing from Ovid and distorting things" (11.29.8); "semicremata: only elsewhere in poetry at Ov. Ibis 632 … M. may have borrowed it from there" (11.54.2); "the line owes something to Ovid" (11.60.4).

Works Cited

Unless noted otherwise, citations of Catullus are from the text of W. Eisenhut (Leipzig 1983); those of Martial are from W. M. Lindsay (Oxford 1929).

ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der r6mischen Welt

CTC Catalogus translationum et commentariorum

PACA Proceedings of the African Classical Association

RE Real-Encyclopadie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft

TAPA Transactions of the American Philological Association

Secondary Sources

Coffey, M. Roman Satire (London 1976)

Ferguson, J. "Catullus and Martial," PACA 6 (1963) 3-15

——. Catullus (Oxford 1988) [=Greece and Rome: New Surveys in the Classics 20]

Friedlaender L. M. Valerii Martialis epigrammaton libri (Leipzig 1886)

Howell, P. A Commentary on Book One of the Epigrams of Martial (London 1980)

Kay, N. M. Martial Book XI: A Commentary (New York 1985)

Newman, J. K. Roman Catullus and the Modification of the Alexandrian Sensibility (Hildesheim 1990)

Quinn, K. Catullus: An Interpretation (New York 1973)

Schanz, M. v. and C. HOSIUS. "C. Valerius Catullus," Geschichte der romischen Literatur, erster Teil (Munich 1927) 292-307

Sullivan, J. P. Martial the unexpected classic (Cambridge 1991)

Szelest, H. "Domitian und Martial," Eos 62 (1974) 105-114

Wagner, E. De M. Valerio Martiale poetarum Augusteae aetatis imitatore (K6nigsburg 1880)

Williams, G. Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry (Oxford 1968)

Wiseman, T. P. Catullus and his World: A Reappraisal (Cambridge 1985)

Zingerle, A. Martial's Ovid-Studien (Innsbruck 1877)