SOURCE: "The Panegyrics of Domitan in Martial, Book 9," Ramus, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1993, pp. 78-102.

[In the essay that follows, Garthwaite focuses on Book 9, discerning a subtle thematic relationship between the epigrams praising the emperor Domitian, the verses dedicated to the young slave Earinus, and the poems dealing with patronage. Garthwaite concludes that the Earinus cycle represents an ironic commentary on Domitian's moral hypocrisy, and that the patronage epigrams suggest that imperial panegyrics are really nothing more than the poet's fulfillment of his part of the client-patron bargain.]

The rich diversity of Martial's Epigrams makes up, in Duff's words, 'one of the most extraordinary galleries of literary pictures, vignettes, miniatures, portraits, caricatures, sometimes almost thumbnail sketches' of the Classical Age.¹ Yet the books are by no means merely random or haphazard assortments. Like other Roman poets, Martial was attentive to the need to impose a sense of order and continuity on his published material.² Naturally the very number of poems, as well as their varied inspiration and often impromptu composition, would militate against any overall thematic coherence.³ Moreover, Martial was also keen to exploit the inherent variety of the epigrammatic genre; thus, in the preface to Book 8, he says that he has interspersed more trivial and jocular material among his panegyrics of the emperor to prevent continuous eulogies from becoming tiresome to their recipient.

Such use of variatio, however, itself implies a concern for the arrangement and presentation of the collection.⁴ And there are other evident signs of order, particularly at the beginning of the books where we find dedications to Martial's most prominent patrons (starting with the emperor), along with the introduction of themes which will be elaborated later in the volume.⁵ We also meet pairs of contrasting or complementary epigrams, either juxtaposed as with Martial's address to Domitian in 1.4 and the emperor's imagined sarcastic response in 1.5, or slightly separated as with the epitaphs to Erotion (5.34 and 5.37). Sometimes a small group may be held together by a less obvious motif, as in variations on the theme of excessive drinking in 1.26-28. Occasionally also, a pair of epigrams may frame and unify a much longer sequence. In 3.68, for instance, Martial warns the respectable matrons among his readers of the blatantly phallic nature of the following poems; the subsequent series of obscene epigrams is then capped in 3.86 by a reminder to the same matrons of the earlier warning, and an invitation to read on. But perhaps the most frequent architectural devices of the books are the series, or cycles, of epigrams written as elaborations on a particular theme and spread intermittently throughout the volume. As Barwick has shown, these poems are placed in a deliberate order, both to create a logical progression within their series and to add a sense of unity to the book as a whole.⁶

Such forms of thematic arrangement, though relatively simple and intermittent, at least allow the possibility of more subtle and extensive interplays. Thus, for example, in his analysis of the ways Martial collected and published in the larger edition those epigrams written initially for individual patrons, White asks:⁷

By means of placement, or revision, or addition, were poems for patrons made to play upon one another? Were allusions created which would draw readers into a clearer knowledge of the patron and his relationship with the poet? Did the published book present patron-oriented material in any aspect which it would previously have lacked?

In fact, White goes on to doubt the likelihood of a positive answer to his queries. But in at least one instance, namely the panegyrics of Domitian spread throughout Book 9, the epigrams not only interact subtly with several other poems in the book but also assume, I believe, an altogether different significance when sewn into the larger context of the volume than they would have had as a self-contained booklet or libellus perhaps presented separately to the emperor.⁸

The Imperial Series

The cycle begins with the opening poem of Book 9:

Dum lanus hiemes, Domitianus autumnos,
Augustus annis commodabit aestates,
dum grande famuli nomen adseret Rheni

Germanicarum magna lux Kalendarum,
Tarpeia summi saxa dum patris stabunt,
dum voce supplex dumque ture placabit
matrona divae dulce luliae numen:
manebit altum Flaviae decus gentis
cum sole et astris cumque luce Romana.
invicta quidquid condidit manus, caeli est.
(9.1)

While Janus shall bestow winters on the years, Domitianus autumns, and Augustus summers; while the great day of Germanicus' Kalends shall claim the almighty name of the Rhine, now our captive; while the Tarpeian rock of the supreme father still stands; while the matron, with her devout prayers and offerings of incense, shall appease the gentle divinity of our sanctified Julia; then so long will the towering glory of the Flavian house endure, along with the sun, the stars and the light of Rome. Whatever this unconquered arm has founded belongs to heaven.

The poem introduces several imperial motifs: the birthday of Domitian signified by the renaming of October (the month of his birth) as Domitianus; the emperor's victories along the Rhine in honour of which he had renamed September (the month of his accession to the throne) with his own title Germanicus; the Capitoline temple of Jupiter, rebuilt by Domitian (and a topic to which Martial will return in 9.3); and the imposing temple of the Flavian family (altum Flaviae decus gentis, 'the towering glory of the Flavian house', 9.1.8), built on the emperor's birthplace and containing the ashes of (among others) his niece Julia.⁹ The reference in the last line to the celestial nature (caeli est) of Domitian's building programme provides the bridge for the continuation of the imperial theme in 9.3:

Quantum iam superis, Caesar, caeloque
 dedisti
  si repetas et si creditor esse velis,
grandis in aetherio licet auctio fiat Olympo
   coganturque dei vendere quidquid
  habent,
conturbabit Atlans, et non erit uncia tota,
   decidat tecum qua pater ipse deum.
pro Capitolinis quid enim tibi solvere
  templis,
   quid pro Tarpeiae frondis honore potest?
quid pro culminibus geminis matrona
  Tonantis?
   Pallada praetereo: res agit illa tuas.
quid loquar Alciden Phoebumque piosque
  Laconas?
   addita quid Latio Flavia templa polo?
expectes et sustineas, Auguste, necesse est:
  nam tibi quod solvat non habet arca
lovis.
(9.3)

If you wanted to become a creditor, Caesar, and call in IOU's for all you have given to the gods and to heaven, then even if there were a giant auction in the celestial halls of Olympus, and the gods were forced to sell all their possessions, Atlas will still go broke and even the father of the gods will not have enough to settle up with you at ten cents in the dollar. For what can he possibly pay you for his Capitoline temples or for the honour of the Tarpeian oak-wreath? What can the Thunderer's wife pay you for her two temples? I'll forget about Minerva—she's your partner anyway. But what's the point of talking about Hercules and Phoebus and the pious Spartan twins; or about the Flavian shrine, the new addition to the Latin heaven? You will just have to hold on, Augustus; for Jupiter's money chest does not have enough to pay you back.

Implicit in this poem is the suggestion of Domitian's superiority to the Olympian gods, even to Jupiter himself.¹⁰ This is measured in what might be considered rather crude and unflattering financial terms, and despite the ostensibly playful and light-hearted tone of the epigram, some of Martial's audience may have found an unpleasant irony in the notion that the emperor's building projects would exhaust even an Olympian vault, given the widespread (and apparently not altogether unfounded) fears at the time that they were, in fact, draining the public treasury.¹¹

Both 9.1 and 9.3 are distinctly topical. The reference in the title Germanicus (9.1.3f.) to Domitian's military victories, for example, recalls the emperor's return in only the previous year from his latest Northern campaigns, honoured in a lengthy cycle in Book 8. And though many of the temples mentioned here date from various points in the reign, the celebration of the building programme in general seems to have been prompted by -the recent opening of the Flavian shrine which frames the list of monuments at 9.1.6-8 and 9.3.12.¹² Moreover, the publication of Book 9 in A.D. 94 also coincided with the completion of a new temple for Hercules (cf. 9.64.2) and with the celebration of the Capitoline contest (noted at 9.3.8).¹³

The prominence of these epigrams at the beginning of the book, and the way they seem to itemise an imperial table of contents, suggests that they are programmatic. And this is borne out by the fact that their various themes are elaborated in a lengthy cycle of poems spread throughout the book.¹⁴ In 9.20 Martial notes that the spot now covered by the marble and gold of the Flavian temple once witnessed the birth of Domitian; and again the poet implies the superiority of the emperor to Jupiter, adding that while the latter had only the rattling weapons of Cybele's eunuch priests to guard him in infancy, Domitian had the aegis and thunderbolt of the king of the gods himself. In still lighter vein, 9.34 pictures a rather tipsy Jupiter looking down enviously from heaven at the gleaming temple and tomb of the Flavians, and comparing it with the barrenness of his own rumoured burial place on Crete. 9.39 takes up the related topic of Domitian's birthday, also echoing 9.20.7f. with the claim that this is the day on which Cybele would have wished to give birth to Jupiter (9.39.1f.). Martial adds that it is also the birthday of Caesonia, the wife of his friend Rufus, thus giving the latter double cause for celebration.

9.23 and 24 pick up the subject of the literary contests and Domitian's special relationship with Minerva, both noted earlier at 9.3.8-10.¹⁵ In 9.23 Martial prophesies that the poet Carus' Alban victory crown which now adorns a bust of the emperor will soon be joined by the winner's wreath from the Capitoline contest; and 9.24 compares the features of Domitian portrayed on the bust with the radiance of a kindly Jupiter, noting that such a likeness could only have been crafted by Minerva herself. Domitian's military victories are honoured once again in 9.31, in which the sacrificial bird which Velius had sworn to offer on the safe return of his imperial commander is portrayed as not only offering itself willingly on the altar but also miraculously revealing silver coins in its mouth as it dies.

The indebtedness of Hercules to Domitian, noted at 9.3.11, is elaborated in 9.64 and 65, describing how the emperor has condescended to give his own features to a bust of Hercules in the latter's new temple. Domitian's superiority to the other gods, suggested earlier in the case of Jupiter, is now explicit; he is the 'greater Hercules' (maiorem Alciden, 9.64.6) whose beauty, if only his lesser counterpart had possessed it, would have made him master, rather than slave, of the tyrannical Eurystheus (9.65.1-7). Similarly, an overt identification of Domitian with Jupiter is voiced in 9.91, in which Martial humorously suggests that given the choice of dinner invitations from both the emperor and Jupiter, though heaven were closer than the palace, he would still be bound to his own earthly Jove (me meus in terris Iuppiter ecce tenet, 'see, my Jupiter holds me on earth', 9.91.6).¹⁶ The penultimate epigram of the cycle, 9.93, retains this sympotic atmosphere, but with its emphasis on the name and titles of Domitian specifically recalls the format of the opening of 9.1; Martial calls for a measure of wine for each letter of the name of the god Caesar (9.93.3f.), and a rose garland for each letter of the name of the ruler (Domitianus) who had founded the 'proud temple of his sacred clan' (sacrae nobile gentis opus, 9.93.6). Finally the poet asks his slave-boy for ten kisses to symbolise 'the name'—Germanicus—'which the god brought back from the Thracian world' (nomen ab Odrysio quod deus orbe tulit, 9.93.8).

The final epigram of the cycle, 9.101, is also the longest poem of the book; it continues the theme of 9.64 and 65 in comparing the labours of the lesser Hercules unfavourably with those of the greater, Domitian. Martial also recapitulates Domitian's services to Jupiter (9.101.14) and the Northern military triumphs which earned him the title Germanicus (victor Hyperboreo nomen ab orbe tulit, 'he brought back, as victor, a name from the Hyperborean world', 9.101.20). The list concludes with what amounts to an index of the imperial themes of Book 9:

templa deis, mores populis dedit, otia ferro,
   astra suis, caelo sidera, serta lovi.
(9.101.21 f.)

He has given temples to the gods, morals to the people, peace to the sword, immortality to his family, stars to heaven, and victory wreaths to Jupiter.

As its length, position and contents show, this epigram was clearly written as the culmination of the series, intended as the epilogue of the imperial cycle and virtually of the book itself. Thus we can see that, despite their variety of theme and tone, and their seemingly random distribution throughout the book, the epigrams of this cycle are not simply an unplanned or unconnected assortment; rather, they follow a consistent scheme with a detailed, programmatic introduction (9.1 and 9.3), a systematic development, and concluding synopsis (9.101). One element of the conclusion, however, namely the theme of Domitian's moral leadership (mores populis dedit, 'he has given morals to the people', 9.101.21), is missing from the two prefatory poems. But this, in fact, takes us back to another pair of epigrams, likewise placed at the beginning of the cycle and of the book:

Tibi, summe Rheni domitor et parens orbis,
pudice princeps, gratias agunt urbes;
populos habebunt: parere iam scelus non est.
non puer avari sectus arte mangonis
virilitatis damna maeret ereptae,
nec quam superbus computet stipem leno
dat prostituto misera mater infanti.
qui nec cubili fuerat ante te quondam,
pudor esse per te coepit et lupanari.
(9.5)

To you, mighty conqueror of the Rhine and parent of the world, prince of purity, the cities give thanks. Now they will have a populace; for giving birth is no longer a crime. No longer does any boy, mutilated by the greedy slave-dealer's well-practised knife, grieve for the destruction of his virility; nor does the impoverished mother give her prostituted infant the vile earnings for some arrogant pimp to count out. The decency which, before your reign, could not even be found in the marriage-bed, is now beginning to show itself even in the brothel.

Tamquam parva foret sexus iniuria nostri
   foedandos populo prostituisse mares,
iam cunae lenonis erat, ut ab ubere raptus
   sordida vagitu posceret aera puer:
immatura dabant infandas corpora poenas.
   non tulit Ausonius talia monstra pater,
idem qui teneris nuper succurrit ephebis,
   ne faceret steriles saeva libido viros.
dilexere prius pueri iuvenesque senesque,
   at nunc infantes te quoque, Caesar,
 amant.
(9.7)

As if it were a negligible injury to our sex to prostitute males to be defiled by the public—even the crib was not safe from the pimp; infant boys, torn from their mother's breast, would solicit sordid wages with piteous wailing. Immature bodies would suffer unspeakable outrage. The Ausonian father could not endure such dreadful horrors—just as he recently came to the aid of our growing youth, and stopped savage lust from inflicting sterility on men. Already boys, and men of all ages revered you. But now even infants love you, Caesar.

The initial description of Domitian as conqueror of the Rhine (Rheni domitor, 9.5.1) provides a link with 9.1. Moreover, the placement of 9.5 and 9.7 at the beginning of the book—clearly paired with 9.1 and 9.3—as well as the summary of their theme in the conclusion at 9.101.21, surely indicate that they too have a programmatic function, to introduce another set of poems in the imperial cycle, this time on Domitian's moral reforms. But further epigrams on this topic are neither as obvious nor, it seems, as numerous as those which develop from 9.1 and 9.3.

We can point to 9.28 in which the comic actor Latinus insists that though his stage character is bawdy, his private life is pure, in keeping with the moral concerns of the emperor (nec poteram gratus domino sine moribus esse, 'I could not find favour with our master without moral principles', 9.28.7). Similarly, 9.79 highlights the difference between the arrogance of the palace retinue of former emperors and the respectfulness and modesty of the present courtiers, who suppress their natural instincts to conform with the morals of their ruler:

nemo suos—haec est aulae natura potentis—
   sed domini mores Caesarianus habet.
(9.79.7f.)

No servant of Caesar retains his own manners, but—such is the spirit of the mighty palace—each holds true to those of his master.

At least these two poems indicate the programmatic nature of 9.5 and 9.7, though it seems odd that such prominence in the introduction to what is otherwise a carefully schematised collection is given to a subject which apparently has a minor role in the remainder of the cycle. Moreover, Martial subsequently develops the theme of 9.5 and 9.7 with a significant alteration; for both 9.28 and 9.79 are concerned with the difference between appearance and reality (or expectation) in moral character, rather than with the actual censorial legislation outlined in the introduction—unlike the very specific connections between the prologue and elaboration of the rest of the cycle.

In 9.28 Latinus' public persona is debauched but his private life pure, while (in contrast) for the courtiers in 9.79 it is the propriety demanded in their public role that makes them suppress their natural instincts. In each case, admittedly, the criterion is the standard publicly required by the emperor. But as if to stress that appearances may be no less deceptive even among seemingly zealous and incorruptible moralists, Martial places immediately before 9.28 an epigram portraying a certain Chrestus, who also publicly advocates the highest moral standards and denounces contemporary vice with all the fervour of an old-time censor—while secretly performing fellatio on young boys. Clearly the two poems are deliberately juxtaposed, as shown by their strong verbal links in the references to the Curii (9.27.6 and 28.4), the theatre (9.27.9 and 28.5) and Cato (9.27.14 and 28.3):

The theme of moral hypocrisy is, in fact, continued in 9.47 in which Pannychus preaches the teachings of Democritus and Zeno, and sports the shaggy beard of an old-fashioned Stoic, while being a notorious pathic. Similarly in 9.70 Caecilianus hypocritically rants at the immorality of the age, though it is his own morals, Martial concludes, that make the present times sordid. Thus, each of these three epigrams (9.27, 47, 70) presents an individual who poses as a watchdog of public morality whilst practising the very vices he condemns. Indeed, with their thematic and verbal interplays they seem to form a unified group which is no less consciously linked with the poems on Domitian's moral leadership.¹⁷ Significantly also—and perhaps surprisingly, since it might be considered a common theme in Martial—this motif of hypocrisy and double standards in morality is voiced more often in Book 9 than in any other.¹⁸

This paradoxical development from 9.5 and 9.7 of the subject of Domitian's curatorship of morals is further emphasised by the beginning, after only three epigrams (a total of ten lines), of another series of poems directly related to the emperor, though dedicated to Earinus (9.11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 36). Here indeed the topics of child prostitution and castration are echoed most strongly, for as we shall see, Martial stresses two features about Earinus: first, that he was Domitian's catamite and, second, that he had also suffered castration.¹⁹ The relevance to 9.5 and 9.7 is clear—and striking; for this combination of poems seems to hint at precisely the same contrast between appearance and reality that Martial works into the theme of Domitian's moral leadership in the rest of Book 9.

The epigrams to Earinus were written to commemorate the dedication of clippings of the young slave's hair—marking his transition from boyhood—to the temple of Asclepius in his native Pergamum. Martial may have been asked (as we know had been the case with Statius) to compose some poems for the occasion;²⁰ hence a possibly uncontroversial explanation for their inclusion in Book 9, making their proximity to the epigrams on Domitian's moral edicts innocent, or at least unavoidable. But perhaps we should instead question the motivation for 9.5 and 9.7. For in contrast to the topicality of the imperial motifs in 9.1 and 9.3, the law against castration was over ten years old.²¹ Granted, we can not know how recently Domitian had prohibited the prostitution of children, since no writer other than Martial bothers to mention it, though Suetonius, for example, provides an otherwise detailed discussion of the emperor's censorial legislation.²² For Martial himself, Domitian's laws governing morality are a noticeably infrequent subject for panegyric, occurring elsewhere only at 6.2 and 6.4. Arguably, then, his unusual interest in this topic in Book 9 was actually prompted by its relevance to the figure of Earinus. Certainly, by including the final Earinus poem (9.36) in the imperial cycle of the book, Barwick also felt that the two series are consciously intertwined rather than fortuitously juxtaposed.²³ Nevertheless, his belief that these epigrams are unequivocally favourable to both Domitian and Earinus still prevails. ²⁴

The Earinus Epigrams

Nomen cum violis rosisque natum,
quo pars optima nominatur anni,
Hyblam quod sapit Atticosque flores,
quod nidos olet alitis superbae;
nomen nectare dulcius beato,
quo mallet Cybeles puer vocari
et qui pocula temperat Tonanti,
quod si Parrhasia sones in aula,
respondent Veneres Cupidinesque;
nomen nobile, molle, delicatum,
versu dicere non rudi volebam;
sed tu syllaba contumax rebellas.
dicunt Eiarinon tamen poetae,
sed Graeci quibus est nihil negatum
et quos … ["Ares" Ares] decet sonare:
nobis non licet esse tam disertis
qui Musas colimus severiores.
(9.11)

A name born with the violets and roses,
by which the year's best part is called;
a name that savours of Hybla and Attic
  flowers,
that bears the scent of the proud bird's nest;
a name sweeter than the gods' own nectar,
by which Cybele's boy, and he who
  measures out drinks
for the Thunderer would like to be called.
If you utter his name in the royal palace,
Venuses and Cupids make reply.
A name so noble, soft and delicate
that I wanted to express it
in more than just a slipshod verse.
But you—obstinate syllable—deny me.
There are poets who say Eiarinos.
But they are Greek and aren't bound by
  convention.
To them, 'Ares' sounds just as good
with a long or short A.
But we can't be quite so clever,
for the Muses we worship are far less
  flexible.

This first epigram of the series is teasing and allusive, refusing to identify its subject but repeatedly emphasising the name (nomen, 1,5,10; nominatur, 2), its derivation from springtime (If.), and its resulting associations with vernal images of honey, fragrance and rebirth (3-6). One would naturally think of a name derived from the Latin ver. Not until Martial finally offers the metrically adapted form Eiarinon in line 13 do we realise we have been tricked as well as teased—for the name actually comes from the Greek ear (spring). But this initial insistence on a name which denotes a season is strikingly similar to the way in which the imperial cycle itself opens, with Martial's designation of autumn by the name Domitianus (9.1.1) and by the title Germanicus, claimed from 'the proud name of the enslaved Rhine' (grande famuli nomen … Rheni, 9.1.3). As we have seen, the significance of the emperor's name and title will play a major role in the rest of the cycle, supplying the them of 9.93, and being emphasised in the summation at 9.101.20. Likewise, the name of Earinus as designator of springtime will continue to be emphasised, providing the main theme of the next two poems (9.12 and 13). An alert reader, however, may already have noticed a deliberate interlocking of the first Earinus poem and the imperial cycle. For in 9.1, Martial mentions only three seasons—the winter denoted by Janus, the autumn by Domitianus (and Germanicus), the summer by Augustus (9.1.1-4). It is the subject of 9.11, Earinus, the personification of springtime, who now supplies the fourth, and so completes the frame.

With this succinct illustration of Martial's schematic technique, we have as sure a sign as we can hope to find that the epigrams for Domitian are designed from their very outset also to incorporate the Earinus poems. As the author subtly implies, these are not two distinct cycles but a coherent and inseparable whole—though their intrinsic contradictions will surely make us begin to question the nature of the panegyrics and Martial's attitude to the emperor.

For the moment, however, let us follow the clues, as Martial supplies them, to the identity of the subject of 9.11. It is a name, he continues, by which both Cybele's boy and Jupiter's cupbearer would prefer to be called (6-8), a name to which, if spoken in the palace, Venuses and Cupids respond (8f.). The analogy with Attis, who suffered emasculation as a result of Cybele's jealous love for him, strongly suggests that the subject of 9.11 is similarly a castratus. And Ganymede, Jupiter's young attendant and lover, is commonly used by Martial to typify attractive slave boys who serve the homosexual interests of their master.²⁵ In fact, we deduce from the next line that this particular slave belongs to the emperor. Thus, still without revealing the actual identity of his subject, Martial has focused our attention on what he considers to be the essential details about him—the derivation of his name from springtime, his emasculation, and his status as Domitian's young slave and lover. These features of the boy are then encapsulated in the description of the name as nobile, molle, delicatum ('noble, soft and delicate', 10)—terms applicable not only to springtime but also to one who gains nobility from an association with the emperor and who is, as the last two epithets suggest, an effeminate and catamite.²⁶ It seems as if the final revelation of the name, while providing an unexpected twist, is rather incidental.

The reference to Venuses and Cupids (9.11.9) who respond to the sound of Earinus' name obviously recalls the opening of Catullus 3, on the death of Lesbia's pet sparrow: lugete o Veneres Cupidinesque ('Mourn 0 Venuses and Cupids'). Martial's vague respondent ('make reply') leaves unclear exactly what sort of response these deities make in Earinus' case. Perhaps we are to imagine that they simply repeat the name. But in the strong Catullan echo we do seem to hear a mournful reply, though this would hardly suit the ostensibly laudatory tone of the epigram. It has long been argued, of course, that the Catullan poem is itself ironic, involving a sexual joke in which passer ('sparrow') is used to signify 'penis'.²⁷ And in several epigrams in which Martial refers to Catullus' sparrow, the context does seem to invite, indeed even depend on, such an interpretation. In 11.6, for example, Martial sets out to write light-hearted verse in keeping with the spirit of the Saturnalia (11.6.1-4); he calls on his slaveboy, Dindymus, first to mix powerful measures of wine such as Pythagoras (Nero's cup-bearer and lover) once prepared for his master, and then to 'give me kisses in Catullan profusion' (da nunc basia, sed Catulliana, 11.6.14). In return, Martial 'will give you Catullus' sparrow' (donabo tibi passerem Catulli, 11.6.16). Admittedly, the wine is requested for poetic, rather than erotic, stimulation (11.6.12f.); but the specific analogy with the notorious relationship of Pythagoras and Nero surely suggests that Martial also wants sexual favours from Dindymus.²⁸

Moreover, at 7.14 Catullus' sparrow is mentioned in an explicitly phallic context: Martial's girlfriend has suffered the loss of 'her plaything and delight' (lusus deliciasque suas, 7.14.2)—not such a loss as Lesbia once wept over when robbed of 'the naughty tricks of her sparrow' (nequitiis passeris orba sui, 7.14.4), nor such as Stella's mistress mourned when deprived of her pet dove (7.14.5f.): his own girl, Martial claims, is not affected by such trifling losses. Rather, she has lost a slave-boy of barely twelve years old 'whose penis was not yet half a yard long'! (mentula cui nondum sesquipedalis erat, 7.14.10). It has been suggested that 'the sexual expose at the end of the epigram works only if something innocuous is intended in the earlier part'.²⁹ But this surely misses the point that the ostensibly ingenuous and sympathetic tone of the poem is a deliberately comic set-up, containing euphemistic double entendres which the punch-line suddenly makes grossly explicit. If Martial is also exploiting this ambiguity in his reference to Earinus, then there is an obvious, though cruel, irony in the idea of a mournful response to the name of this emasculated youth from those Venuses and Cupids who once lamented the demise of Lesbia's sparrow.

The following two epigrams which, along with 9.11, make up the first segment of the Earinus cycle, again promote the symbolism of the name:

Nomen habes teneri quod tempora nuncupat
 anni,

   cum breve Cecropiae ver populantur
  apes:
nomen Acidalia meruit quod harundine
  pingi,
   quod Cytherea sua scribere gaudet acu.
nomen Erythraeis quod littera facta lapillis,
   gemma quod Heliadum pollice trita
  notet,
quod pinna scribente grues ad sidera tollant;
   quod decet in sola Caesaris esse domo.
(9.12)

You haye a name that denotes the year's tender season, when Athenian bees destroy the brief springtime; a name that deserves to be coloured by Venus' pen, that the Cytherean goddess happily embroiders with her needle. A name marked out by the letter made of Indian pearls, by the Heliades' amber rubbed with the thumb. A name that cranes should raise to the heavens, writing it out with their wings. A name that properly belongs only in Caesar's house.

Si daret autumnus mihi nomen, Oporinos
  essem,
   horrida si brumae sidera, Chimerinos;
dictus ab aestivo Therinos tibi mense
  vocarer:
   tempora cui nomen verna dedere, quis
  est?
(9.13)

If autumn were to give me my name,
    I would be Oporinos;
if it were winter's stormy sky,
    then I would be Chimerinos.
Were I named after summer's season,
   you would call me Therinos.
But the one named for springtime—
   who is he?

As in 9.11, so in 9.12 the analogy between Earinus and springtime is reciprocal; for just as the boy's name denotes the season, so the terms used to describe spring itself are also depictive of Earinus. Tener ('tender'), for example, used of the new year at 9.12.1, can also refer to young boys and, synonymously with mollis and delicatus, especially to effeminates.³⁰ But perhaps a more sombre and plaintive analogy emerges in the following line as Martial emphasises, not the beauty and fragrance of the season, but the destruction of springtime by the honey-bees. And in further variation, the apparent reference to the V-shape of a pearl necklace (9.12.5f.), and the mention of the letter formed by the wings of cranes in flight (9.12.7), indicate that Martial is now connecting Earinus with the Latin ver as well as the Greek ear. Thus he may well be envisaging possible Latin as well as Greek derivatives for the name of this person called after the 'spring season' (tempora verna, 9.13.4). In fact, verna is especially suggestive since, besides being the adjective 'vernal', it is also the noun 'houseboy' or 'home-bred slave'. Again, this would aptly describe Earinus' status; but we should note, first, that Martial occasionally uses verna in a derogatory sense, and also that the term contradicts the earlier suggestion of the boy's nobility (nomen nobile, 'noble name', 9.11.10).³¹

The images of beauty, fragrance and fertility in 9.12, as in 9.11.1-5, associate Earinus not simply with springtime but especially with the erotic world of lovers. Compare, for example, Martial's description of his beloved little Erotion in 5.37, an epigram aptly termed 'a lover's address to his mistress rather than a lament for a child'.³² For Erotion was more desirable than Indian pearls, had breath as sweet as Attic honey or amber rubbed in the palm, and was rarer than the phoenix. The similarly sensuous portrayal of Earinus perhaps befits one who is the emperor's delicatus. But it might also be considered tactless to dwell on the sexual nature of the relationship between this particular slave and master. Moreover, we know by now that Earinus is a eunuch. Thus, while these analogies with regeneration and the fertility of spring may harmonise with his name, they are singularly inappropriate, if not cruelly sarcastic, when applied to the person.

Not until 9.16 and 17, and then only in passing, does Martial reveal the occasion for which he has composed the series:

Consilium formae speculum dulcisque
 capillos
  Pergameo posuit dona sacrata deo
ille puer tota domino gratissimus aula,
    nomine qui signat tempora vema suo.
felix quae tali censetur munere tellus!
    nec Ganymedeas mallet habere comas.
(9.16)

The mirror, planner of his beauty, and those tender curls are offered in dedication to Pergamum's god by the boy who of all the palace is dearest to his master and whose name signifies springtime. Blessed the land that is honoured by such a gift. It would never prefer even the locks of Ganymede.

Latonae venerande nepos qui mitibus herbis
   Parcarum exoras pensa brevesque colos,
hos tibi laudatos domino, rata vota, capillos
   ille tuus Latia misit ab urbe puer;
addidit et nitidum sacratis crinibus orbem

    quo felix facies iudice tuta fuit.
tu iuvenale decus serva, ne pulchrior ille
    in longa fuerit quam breviore coma.
(9.17)

Latona's revered grandson whose magic herbs gently prevail over the threads and short distaffs of the Fates, to you that boy (your own alumnus) has sent from the Latin city that gift he promised, his hair so dearly prized by his master. To the dedication of these curls he has added a gleaming mirror whose reflection assured him that his happy beauty was safe. Preserve his youthful radiance so that he will not have been more beautiful with long hair than he is now with short.

Here, then, the bare details: the dedication of some clippings of hair, along with a mirror, to the temple of Asclepius in Pergamum. Indeed, only in 9.16.3f. do we realise that this is a continuation of the Earinus cycle, for the donor is the boy most pleasing in the whole palace to his master, and one whose name signifies springtime. The nobility which the young slave gains from the emperor is reflected even in the offering, since the land which receives it is 'fortunate' (felix, 9.16.5) and would prefer it even to the locks of Ganymede (9.16.6). The analogy hints not so much at the superiority of Earinus to the heavenly cup-bearer, as at that of Domitian, the earthly Jove, to Olympian Jupiter; it also serves to remind us, however, of the pederastic nature of the relationship between the emperor and his attendant. Both ideas will be elaborated in 9.36, the final epigram of the Earinus series.

In 9.17 Martial addresses Asclepius as the god whose medicinal skills can offset the normally brief span allotted by the Fates and so prolong human life; the poet asks him to preserve Earinus' youthful beauty so that he will be no less attractive with short hair than he was with long. It is not an idle prayer, for as we know from several of Martial's epigrams (including 9.36), the cutting of a slave-boy's long curls normally signified, along with his first beard, the onset of manhood and so the end of his sexual relationship with his master.³³ As a eunuch, Earinus will, of course, remain beardless. Nevertheless, the clipping of the 'long hair so highly praised by his master' (laudatos domino … capillos, 9.17.3) could portend not only the loss of Earinus' childlike attractiveness but also the end of his usefulness to the emperor. Finally, we should note that felix typically means not only 'fortunate' but also 'fertile' and 'productive';³⁴ thus, in its repeated use, first describing the land that receives Earinus' gift (felix … tellus, 'fortunate the land', 9.16.5), and then the beauty of the boy himself (felix facies, 'fortunate appearance', 9.17.6), we may again detect an ironic contrast between the symbolic significance of Earinus' name and the sterility of the person himself.

The last epigram of the series seems intended, with its strong similarities to 9.34 (on the Flavian palace), to bind together the cycles to Earinus and Domitian:

Viderat Ausonium posito modo crine
 ministrum
   Phryx puer, alterius gaudia nota lovis:
'quod tuus ecce suo Caesar permisit ephebo
   tu permitte tuo, maxime rector,' ait.
'iam mihi prima latet longis lanugo capillis,
   iam tua me ridet luno vocatque virum.'
cui pater aetherius 'puer o dulcissime,' dixit
   'non ego quod poscis, res negat ipsa
  tibi:
Caesar habet noster similis tibi mille
  ministros
   tantaque sidereos vix capit aula mares;
at tibi si dederit vultus coma tonsa viriles,
    quis mihi qui nectar misceat alter erit?'
(9.36)

The Phrygian boy, well known pet of the other Jupiter, had seen the Ausonian cupbearer with his hair newly clipped.

'Almighty ruler,' he cries, 'look at what your Caesar has allowed his young man to do. Give yours the same right. Already the first fluff of a beard lies hidden beneath my long curls. Even now your Juno sneers at me and calls me a man.'

'My sweet young boy,' replied the heavenly father, 'it is not 1, but circumstance, that prevents you. Our Caesar has a thousand servants like you; his palace, for all its size, can scarcely contain all those dazzling young males. But if the cutting of your hair should reveal the face of a man, who else will I have to mix the nectar for me?'

Just as 9.34 pictures a rather inebriated Jupiter peering enviously down from the Olympian banquet at the splendour of Domitian's Flavian temple, so 9.36 depicts Ganymede looking down jealously from heaven at the cutting of Earinus' long hair. Both epigrams also have a similarly playful tone and a conversational format culminating in a monologue from Jupiter implicitly acknowledging his inferiority to the emperor. Again it is noticeable, however, that in each case Domitian's presumed superiority is based on mundane, material considerations—on the gleaming Flavian tomb compared to the squalor of Jupiter's supposed burial place (9.34.7f.), and the emperor's thousand attendants compared to Jupiter's sole and irreplaceable cupbearer (9.36.9-12). And is there not also, perhaps, a comic incongruity in the image of the horde of handsome young Ganymedes packed into the palace of an emperor hailed only shortly before as 'prince of purity' (pudice princeps, 9.5.2)?

The mythological scenario presented in this epigram seems altogether jocular, and might even be considered too inconsequential or frivolous to merit careful analysis. In comparing Domitian to Jupiter, and Earinus to Ganymede, Martial's aim seems to be flattery in an off-hand, light-hearted manner. Yet he also seems particularly keen to stress the variety, or even incompatibility, of possible perspectives in this supposedly guileless and uncontroversial analogy. At 9.36.2, for example, Martial calls Jupiter the other, and so inferentially the inferior, Jove—reflecting, of course, his earlier claim of Domitian as the greater god. In contrast, Ganymede sees Jupiter as the supreme deity, addressing him as 'almighty ruler' (maxime rector, 9.36.4). Similarly, Ganymede characterises himself (and Earinus) as an ephebe, a young man (9.36.3f.), though Jupiter insists on seeing him still as 'my sweet young boy' (puer o dulcissime, 9.36.7). Moreover, though Ganymede equates himself initially with Earinus, his following words highlight, apparently unwittingly, an essential difference between them. For Juno, he adds, can already see the beginnings of a beard beneath his own long curls, and ridicules the man masquerading as a boy (9.36.5f.). Jupiter himself emphasises the fact in a further comparison. Domitian, he notes, has a thousand such attendants, a thousand handsome males (sidereos … mares, 'dazzling young males', 9.36.10), all like Ganymede; the cutting of Ganymede's hair, he admits, is indeed likely to reveal the man beneath. The difference is unstated but cleverly stressed. For it is not simply his irreplaceability that prevents Ganymede from cutting his hair like Earinus, but the fact that Earinus is a eunuch—and Ganymede is not.

Jupiter, then, may provide a celestial parallel for his earthly counterpart's pederasty, but not for the castration of his young favourites. In spite of his rather desperate attempts to delay his cupbearer's adolescence, and his professed lack of a substitute, Jupiter has not resorted to the emasculation of Ganymede in order to prolong their sexual partnership. In contrast, the throngs of young delicati who, according to Martial, can scarcely be contained even in the vastness of Domitian's palace, would seem to relieve the emperor of even the practical necessity of having his slave boys castrated to gratify his sexual interests. In sum, the Earinus series closes with a sly subversion of the notion of Domitian's superiority to Jupiter and so contradicts a major premise of the imperial cycle. For now, by the ethical standards postulated by the emperor himself, Jupiter emerges as Domitian's moral superior.

Domitian's Patronage of Martial

Martial's ability and fame as a poet gave him, in his view, a greater claim to support from patrons than could be expected by other clients. For in return for their assistance, Martial could offer his benefactors celebrity and even immortality through his verse.³⁵ Granted, he often acknowledges the triviality of epigram compared to the loftier genres; yet he is also confident that his poetry will survive long after the monuments and tombs of the likes of Messala (significantly, the great Augustan patron of letters) have crumbled to dust (8.3.5-8; 10.2.9-12).³⁶ Thus he can boast:

gaudet honorato sed multus nomine lector,
     cui victura meo munere fama datur.
(5.15.3f.)

Many a reader rejoices in the celebration of his name and the fame which will live after him thanks to me.

But as Juvenal would later insist (Sat. 7.1-3), hopes for support of the arts lay increasingly with the emperor. So, in 5.19, Martial asserts that in this age of selfishness it falls on Domitian to assume such a duty. For while the reign is unparallelled for the celebration of triumphs and the splendour of the city's buildings (5.19.5), the one significant blemish is the lack of personal patronage; for the poor still cultivate unrewarding friendships (5.19.8). There can be no finer quality in a monarch, the poet concludes, than for him to take on the mantle of patron (5.19.15). Significantly, however, Martial immediately follows this epigram with an assertion of bitter distaste for his own duties as a client (5.20). Here, he expresses his hatred of having to pay court in the halls of the mighty—a labour not of love or loyalty but of necessity which, far from providing him with the comforts and pleasures of life, actually deprives him of them (5.20.5-13).

A similar pairing occurs at 6.10 and 11, in the first of which Martial complains that while the emperor presents great temples to Jupiter, he ignores the comparatively trivial requests of the poet (6.10.3f.). Again we note the contrast between the lavish expenditure on building projects and the utter lack of personal patronage. Martial concludes with the hope that silence may not mean refusal. The following epigram is addressed to Marcus, surely not coincidentally a self-indulgent, but stingy patron. The poet claims that the current lack of loyal servants, such as Pylades once was to Orestes, is caused by the absence of generous, fair-minded masters. While Marcus enjoys the finest food and clothing, but denies them to Martial, he still expects the poet to honour him (6.11.5-8). But such loyalty cannot be gained by words alone—to gain this affection, the poet concludes, one must first buy it (hoc non fit verbis, Marce; ut ameris, ama, 'this doesn't come about by words, Marcus: to be loved you must love', 6.11.10). Again, the juxtaposing of related topics seems deliberate, and the blunt expression of the rather business-like obligation to pay for the poet's services seems to apply implicitly even to the emperor.

It is hardly surprising or accidental, then, that the eulogies of Domitian at the beginning of Book 9 are closely followed by a material request from the poet (9.18). And appropriately, given the praise of the imperial building projects, Martial asks Domitian not for money but for the provision of a water supply for his house in Rome and his Nomentan farm.³⁷ He closes by promising that if his prayer is answered, he will honour the water 'as a Castalian spring or rain from Jupiter' (Castalis haec [sc. unda] nobis aut Iovis imber erit, 9.18.8). The analogies are highly suggestive, hinting clearly that the gift would, like the spring of the Muses, give Martial renewed poetic inspiration to repay his benefactor—specifically by celebrating him as the living Jove.

Yet, curiously, the following poem deals specifically with the insincerity of a client's praise of his master's buildings:

Laudas balnea versibus trecentis
cenantis bene Pontici, Sabelle.
vis cenare, Sabelle, non lavari.
(9.19)

You praise in full three hundred verses,
Sabellus, Ponticus' bath house.
He dines well, too.
It's dinner you're after, not a bath.

This epigram is itself the last in a short series on the cena as an illustration of the pretences and realities of the client-patron relationship. In 9.9 Martial chastises Cantharus for his abusive behaviour even as a dinner guest, reminding him that he cannot indulge in both free speech and free food; the point seems to be that the man who is given his due forfeits the right to criticise. In 9.14, by contrast, he reveals that an unnamed client's apparent devotion to his patron is actually insincere; for it is the dinner table, with its expensive meat and fish, that he loves, not the patron himself (9.14.3). Martial concludes that he could buy such affection for himself if only he could provide equally fine fare. The subject of insincere clients is then repeated in the Sabellus epigram. But given the context, between Martial's petition to the emperor and promise of a verse tribute for its fulfilment (9.18) and his praise of Domitian's Flavian temple (9.20), it is surely no coincidence that Sabellus is, like Martial, a poet—offering poetic tributes to a patron's building activities as a means of gaining support. And significantly, Sabellus' panegyric of the bath house, fulsome though it is, is prompted not by any admiration of the structure, or even ostensibly (especially in view of 9.14) of its builder, but entirely by the hope of material reward.

In sum, by a careful intertwining of poems and ideas, Martial seems to be suggesting to the astute reader a means of understanding the imperial panegyrics, not so much as expressions of sincere admiration and loyalty but, so to speak, as his down-payment in the transaction between patron and poet, from which he anticipates a return in the form of material support.

Whether Martial's plea for a private water supply was, in fact, ever granted, is still debated.³⁸ Certainly, he nowhere acknowledges receipt of it. But perhaps 9.22, the next poem to deal with Martial's request for support from a patron, provides a clue, or at least an indication of the poet's expectations. He addresses the wealthy (and possibly fictitious) Pastor who believes Martial's requests for money are prompted by the trite ambition to enjoy the luxuries of life, which the poet goes on to detail at some length (9.22.3-14). Noticeably, they are items which Martial typically represents as the indulgences of selfish patrons.³⁹ He swears, however, that he is interested in none of these. Rather, he desires wealth in order to 'bestow gifts and erect buildings' (ut donem, Pastor, et aedificem, 9.22.16)—at first glance a laudable aim to be, in contrast to the majority, a generous and public-spirited patron. But we may recall 4.67 in which a praetor turns down his longtime client's request for a gift of 100,000 sesterces with the plea that he is already committed to bestowing a much larger sum on Scorpus and Thallus—since the latter were famous charioteers the deceit is patent: the praetor is betting a fortune on the races. Similarly, 9.46 describes Gellius who devotes his whole life to petty building projects just so that he can say to any client who asks him for money, 'I'm building' (aedifico, 9.46.6). So Martial's promise at the end of 9.22 seems ironic rather than altruistic, mocking the rich who mask their selfishness with protestations of their generosity or of more pressing financial commitments. But more to the point, only in Book 9 does Martial attribute 'building' to the wealthy as their excuse for failing to fulfil their patronal duties and support their clients—this in a volume dominated by the theme of Domitian's vast and hugely expensive building projects.

Apparently, then, on his own ironic though subtly voiced prediction, Martial held but little hope of remuneration for his imperial eulogies, among which he would surely also have counted those of Book 8. For in only the previous year he had dedicated that entire book to Domitian, devoting the highest proportion of epigrams in any volume to celebrating the regime. Here too he had included a prayer for support from the emperor (8.24) though again tinged with the expectation of refusal (et si non dederis, Caesar, permitte rogari, 'even if you don't grant it, Caesar, at least allow yourself to be asked', 8.24.3). It has been suggested that, overall, Martial was not disappointed with the amount of reward from Domitian.⁴⁰ But actually, such remuneration seems to have become increasingly sparse—perhaps reflected in the fact that his published petitions to the emperor are often accompanied by either an open reminder of the lack of support thus far, or a strong attack on the stinginess and ingratitude of patrons in general.⁴¹

Might this not explain, at least in part, the sly inter-weaving of a carefully veiled, but bitingly sarcastic element among the eulogies of Domitian which the poet subsequently incorporated and published in Book 9? Remarkably, on the only other occasion when Martial celebrates Domitian's moral reforms (6.2 and 4) there is also, as I have argued elsewhere, a subtle indictment of the emperor's hypocrisy in this area (6.3), likewise followed by a complaint about his refusal to support the poet, while spending lavishly on building projects (6.10).⁴² As we have seen, to those whom he celebrates in his verse Martial promises wide and undying renown. But there is an almost contractual obligation to repay the poet's gift; failure to do so is tantamount, in Martial's view, to dishonouring an agreement:

Laudatus nostro quidam, Faustine, libello
   dissimulat, quasi nil debeat: imposuit.
(5.36)

A certain man whom I praised in my book,
Faustinus, pretends he owes me nothing.
He has swindled me.

The surprise is that, however devious and unobtrusive his method, Martial does not shrink from binding even the emperor by the terms of this patron-poet contract, or from gaining poetic justice when the bargain is dishonoured.

Castrate the Patron

It might be argued that this analysis has created a new and unauthorised text from Book 9, namely by extracting and grouping together originally distinct poems. I would point out first, however, that in his dispersal of the various cycles throughout the volumes Martial clearly intends us to see connections between often widely separated epigrams. Moreover, we should also allow the possibility of other structural devices, based not only on verbal and thematic interplays but on length and metre, operating alongside the series to Domitian and Earinus.⁴³ After all, Martial's professed aim was to blend variety with continuity. But what of 9.2? Despite its prominent placement at the beginning of the volume, and between the first two epigrams to Domitian, it seems to have little relevance to the book overall and none whatsoever to the imperial poems that enclose it:

Pauper amicitiae cum sis, Lupe, non es
  amicae
   et queritur de te mentula sola nihil.
illa siligineis pinguescit adultera cunnis,
   convivam pascit nigra farina tuum.
incensura nives dominae Setina liquantur,
   nos bibimus Corsi pulla venena cadi;
empta tibi nox est fundis non tota paternis,
   non sua desertus rura sodalis arat;
splendet Erythraeis perlucida moecha lapillis,
   ducitur addictus, te futuente, cliens;
octo Syris suffulta datur lectica puellae,
   nudum sandapilae pondus amicus erit.
i nunc et miseros, Cybele, praecide
  cinaedos:
   haec erat, haec cultris mentula digna
  tuis.
(9.2)

You are stingy to your friends, Lupus, but not to your mistress, and your prick alone has no cause for complaint about you. That adulteress of yours grows fat on cuntshaped cakes, while your guest gets a diet of black flour. Setine wines are decanted to set your mistress's ice ablaze; we drink the black poison of a Corsican keg. You sell off entire estates to buy one night—and not even a whole one; your abandoned retainer ploughs another man's fields. Your adulteress flashes and gleams with Indian pearls. But while you are fucking, your client is hauled off to bankruptcy court. Your girlfriend gets a sedan borne by eight Syrian slaves. Your friend will be a naked corpse—small burden—on a pauper's bier. Forget about castrating those wretched young queers of yours, Cybele—this was the prick worthy of your knife.

The poem involves the relationship between client and patron, with Lupus portrayed as a rich patron of gross self-indulgence at the expense of his needy dependant.⁴⁴ Indeed, his name seems to epitomise his selfishness and voracious (sexual) appetite.⁴⁵ He perhaps anticipates Pastor in 9.22, in typifying those among the wealthy who spend a fortune on their own desires while denying their impoverished friends. In fact, there are both verbal and thematic parallels between the two poems, in the reference to the Setine region (9.2.5 and 22.3), as well as in the depiction of expensive wine chilled with snow (9.2.5 and 22.8), and finally in the reference to costly Syrian litter-bearers (9.2.11 and 22.9). More noticeably, however, the portrayal of Lupus' mistress, gleaming with Indian pearls (splendet Erythraeis perlucida moecha lapillis, 'your adulteress flashes and gleams with Indian pearls', 9.2.9) is echoed shortly afterwards in the description of Domitian's beloved Earinus, whose name is symbolised by these same Eastern jewels (nomen Erythraeis quod litter a facta lapillis, 'a name marked out by the letter made of Indian pearls', 9.12.5). Perhaps, then, 9.2 consciously anticipates at least two later epigrams. But may we not also detect a parallel, if only in hindsight, between the depiction of Lupus' selfish prodigality and the description, in the enclosing poems, of Domitian's huge expenditure on building projects?

Most striking, however, is the way the ending of 9.2 foreshadows another major element of the imperial series. For quite unexpectedly Martial addresses Cybele (9.2.13); there is no need, he insists, to castrate your wretched young acolytes—this was the prick (Lupus') most worthy of your knife. The anticipation of the topic of the castration edict in 9.5 and 9.7 is obvious. And as in these two epigrams, so in 9.2 Martial disavows the need to emasculate innocent children. Here, instead, it is the rich patron who deserves the knife, for his disgusting self-indulgence and a neglect which inflicts the direct hardship on his needy clients. Perhaps, after all, the placement of 9.2 is purposeful. For not only is its characterisation of Lupus, presented so conspicuously at the beginning of the book, analogous to that which lurks beneath the formal portrait of Domitian in the rest of the volume; is it not also possible that the fate which Lupus apparently richly deserves may equally embrace (in the poet's wicked fancy, at least) his even more prodigal and self-serving counterpart?

Notes

¹ J. Wight Duff, A Literary History of Rome in the Silver Age (London 1927), 501. For the text of Martial I follow W. M. Lindsay, M. Val. Martialis Epigrammata (Oxford 1902).

² For a recent discussion of the architecture of Hellenistic and Augustan poetry books see M. Santirocco, Unity and Design in Horace's Odes (Chapel Hill 1986), 313. For Martial cf. G. Erb, Zu Komposition und Aujbau im ersten Buch Martials (Frankfurt am Main 1981), and the useful survey by J. Sullivan, Martial: The Unexpected Classic (Cambridge 1991), 217-221.

³ As noted by N. Holzberg, Martial (Heidelberg 1988), 37.

⁴ For variatio as an ordering principle see Santirocco (n.2 above), 6-9.

⁵ Cf. the analysis of the programmatic opening of Book 11 by N. M. Kay, Martial, Book II: A Commentary (London 1985), 5f. Also P. Howell, A Commentary on Book 1 of the Epigrams of Martial (London 1980), llf.

⁶ K. Barwick, 'Zyklen bei Martial und in den kleinen Gedichten des Catull', Philologus 102 (1958), 284-318.

⁷ P. White, 'The Presentation and Dedication of the Silvae and the Epigrams', JRS 64 (1974), 50.

⁸ For Martial's offering of various libelli, each dedicated to an individual patron, prior to their compilation with other epigrams to form the larger volume, see White (n.7 above), 40ff.

⁹ For Domitian's birthday (October 24, A.D. 51), accession to the throne (September 14, A.D. 81) and renaming of both months see Suet. Dom. I and 13; for the Capitoline temple and the Flavian shrine see Suet. Dom. 1.1 and 5.1 and Statius, Silv. 4.3.16-18. For Julia's burial in the shrine see Suet. Dom. 17.3.

¹⁰ For the equation of Domitian with Jupiter in both Martial and Statius see K. Scott, The Imperial Cult under the Flavians (Stuttgart 1936), 133-139.

¹¹ On the long debate about whether Domitian's building projects actually ruined the treasury see P. M. Rogers, 'Domitian and the Finances of State', Historia 33 (1986), 60-78. My concern is not so much with the modern verdict but with the feelings of Martial's contemporaries; and here the judgements seem unambiguous. Suetonius (Dom. 12.1), for example, insists that the emperor was 'drained of money by the cost of his buildings and shows' (exhaustus operum ac munerum impensis), and relates that someone scrawled ARCI on one of Domitian's many arches, punning on the similarity between arcus ('arch') and the Greek arkei ('enough'). Plutarch (Publ. 15) describes Domitian's temple-building as a symptom not of piety but of sickness (noson), and compares his mania for building with Midas' insatiable craving for gold. Cf. also Pliny, Pan. 51.

¹² For an excellent survey of the chronology of Domitian's building projects see B. W. Jones, The Emperor Domitian (London 1992), 79-98. Martial (9.1) is the first to mention the Flavian shrine; for the dating of Book 9 to A.D. 94 see L. Friedlaender (ed.), M. Val. Martialis Epigrammaton Libri (Amsterdam 1961), 61. The shrine is also noted by Statius (Silv. 4.3.18) in A.D. 95 (for the date see F. Vollmer [ed.], P. P. Statii Silvarum Libri [Leipzig 1898], 8f.).¹³ The Capitoline contest was revived in A.D. 86 and celebrated every four years thereafter (cf. RE 3.1528). For the topicality of the contest in the year of the publication of Book 9 cf. also 9.35.9f. and 9.40.

¹⁴ My enumeration of the poems which constitute the imperial cycle in Book 9 differs from that suggested by Barwick (n.6 above), 287ff. He lists 1, 3, 5, 7, 18, 20, 34, 36, 39, 64, 65, 79, 83, 91, 93, 101; but this seems rather arbitrary, including, for example, the last epigram in a series dedicated to Earinus (9.36) while omitting its predecessors (9.11-13 and 16-17). Similarly, 9.23 and 24 are excluded even though they honour Domitian no less than Carus, the actual addressee. 9.31 is also omitted, despite addressing the emperor directly in the penultimate line. In contrast, 9.39 is included, though it does not address Domitian, and celebrates Martial's friend Rufus and his wife no less than the emperor. I prefer to base my analysis on thematic development rather than on the numerical schemes apparently favoured by Barwick.

¹⁵ For Domitian's patronage of Minerva and the Alban games in her honour cf. Suet. Dom. AA.

¹⁶ 9.83, on the splendour of Domitian's games, addresses the emperor directly and is thus also clearly part of the book's imperial cycle. Martial jokes that Rome owes a debt of thanks not only for the spectacles themselves but also for the fact that even those poets who are otherwise always giving recitations are now attending the games, and so giving everyone's ears a rest. The topic is not specifically introduced in 9.1 or 9.3, but the praise of Domitian's munificence and the wonders of the shows (here said to excel those of previous emperors, 83.2) obviously fits comfortably into the themes established by the introductory poems.

¹⁷ Besides the links between 9.27 and 9.28 cf. also 9.27.7f. with 9.47.2f.; 9.27.9 with 9.70.1 and 5; 9.70.7-9 with 9.79.5f.

¹⁸ On the presumed frequency of the topic see W. S. Anderson, 'Lascivia vs. Ira: Martial and Juvenal', in Essays on Roman Satire (Princeton 1982), 367 n.8: 'Parallels in Martial are common.' But outside Book 9 cf. only 1.24; 1.96; 2.36; 7.58; 12.42.

¹⁹ Admittedly, Martial does not say whether Earinus had been emasculated on Domitian's orders. Statius, however, reveals that the boy had suffered castration after his acquisition by the emperor and his arrival in the palace (Silv. 3.4.65ff.).

²⁰ Cf. Statius Silv. 3 pref.

²¹ For the dating of the edict to A.D. 81-82 see A. Schoene (ed.), Eusebi Chronicorum Canonum vol.2 (Frankfurt 1967), 160f. Martial first mentions the law in 2.60 (published A.D. 85-86).

²²Dom. 7-8. See also Dio 67.212, Statius Silv. 4.3.1 0ff.

²³ See n.14 above.

²⁴ E.g. Sullivan (n.2 above), 43 and 145.

²⁵ For Attis as a castratus cf. 5.41.2f.; 8.46.4. For Ganymede as an exemplar of the delicatus cf. 5.55; 2.43.13f.; 3.39; 10.98.1f.; 11.104.19f.

²⁶ Cf. 9.25.3 and 9.55.3 (mollis); 3.58.32 (delicatus).

²⁷ See G. Giangrande, 'Catullus' Lyrics on the Passer', MPhL 1 (1976), 137-146; Y. Nadeau, 'Catullus' Sparrow, Martial, Juvenal and Ovid', Latomus 43 (1984), 861-868; also Howell (n.5 above), 122ff., on the passer Catulli in Martial's poems to Stella. Against the argument see H. D. Jocelyn, 'On Some Unnecessarily Indecent Interpretations of Catullus 2 and 3', Latomus 43 (1982), 97-103. Other than the reference to Earinus, Martial uses Veneres Cupidinesque only in the epitaph for the actor Paris (11.13). In language evocative of Catullus' sparrow poem, Martial notes that the delight of the city, its playfulness and passion, and all the Venuses and Cupids are buried with Paris (11.13.3-6). The characterisation reflects, of course, the popularity and licentiousness of Roman farce in which Paris had been a leading player. But considering that Paris had been put to death for his adultery with Domitian's wife (cf. Suet. Dom. 3), we might also sense a sly sexual innuendo.

²⁸ For the 'marriage' of Nero and Pythagoras see Tacitus Ann. 15.37.

²⁹ R. A. Pitcher, 'Passer Catulli: The Evidence of Martial', Antichthon 16 (1982), 100.

³⁰ E.g. 4.66.9; 9.25.9.

³¹ E.g. 1.41.2; 6.29.1.

³² L. J. Lloyd, 'Erotion: a Note on Martial', G&R 22 (1953), 40. Note also P. Watson, 'Erotion: Puella Delicata?', CQ 42 (1992), 257: 'To the reader approaching the poem (i.e. 5.37) for the first time, the language appears unequivocally erotic.' Compare the description of Erotion at 5.37.4 (more lovely than Indian pearls) with 9.12.5; 5.37.10 (smelling of Attic honey) with 9.11.3 and 9.12.2; 5.37.11 (smelling of amber) with 9.12.6; 5.37.13 (rarer than the phoenix) with 9.11.4.

³³ E.g. 1.31; 4.7; 5.48; 11.78.3f.; 12.18.24f.

³⁴ For the association of felix with Venus and fertility, see F. M. Ahl, Lucan: An Introduction (Ithaca 1976), 287ff.

³⁵ See the discussion by Sullivan (n.2 above), 117ff.

³⁶ For the epigrams as nugae (trifles) see e.g. 2.1.6; 4.10; 4.72.3. For an excellent account of Martial's assessment of the durability of his work see Sullivan (n.2 above), 56ff.

³⁷ Statius made a similar request of Domitian and was granted it (Silv. 3.1.61ff.).

³⁸ See R. Saller, Personal Patronage under the Early Empire (Cambridge 1982), 35. Martial's publication of the request but not of any subsequent thanks surely indicates that his plea was ignored, especially since he must have known of of Statius' public thanksgiving for the grant of a similar request. For another of Martial's petitions to Domitian, followed immediately by a public expression of gratitude for the granting of it cf. 2.91 and 92.

³⁹ Cf. 2.43; 6.11; 10.13; 10.98.

⁴⁰ Sullivan (n.2 above), 121. In contrast, H. Szelest, 'Domitian und Martial', Eos 62 (1974), 105ff., argues that Martial was bitter at the lack of imperial support. For further examinations of the forms and amounts of imperial and other patronage which Martial expected see R. Saller, 'Martial on Patronage and Literature', CQ 33 (1983), 246-257, and P. White, 'Amicitia and the Profession of Poetry', JRS 68 (1978), 74-92.

⁴¹ Apart from the petitions, already noted, at 2.91, 5.19, 6.10, 8.24 and 9.18, see also 6.87 for Martial's prayer for the gods and the emperor to give him what he wants if he has deserved it (followed by 6.88 in which a haughty patron denies the poet the dole for failing to salute him with due formality); also Martial's reminder to Domitian at 8.82 of the need to support his poets. Of these epigrams it is worth noting that only the earliest, 2.91, is followed by an acknowledgement of the granting of a request. Similarly, Statius notes at Silv. 4.1.63 the long hiatus in marks of recognition from the emperor.

⁴² 'Martial, Book 6, on Domitian's Moral Censorship', Prudentia 22 (1990), 13-22.

⁴³ For example, I would suggest tentatively that 9.2 (on which, however, see further below) and 9.4 are linked by their explicit obscenity (n.b. futuente, 9.2.10; futui, 9.4.1 and 2) and by the fact that both concern payment for sex. Further, like 9.2, both 9.6 (on the disdainful refusal of a patron to acknowledge Martial's morning call) and 9.8 (on Bithynicus' omission from the will of Fabius to whom he had given annual gifts) both involve the selfishness and arrogance of the wealthy. I would note also that 9.11-13 (on Earinus) are framed by two pairs of epigrams balanced in both length and theme—9.9 and 9.14 on contrasting attitudes of clients as dinner guests, and the misogynistic pair 9.10 and 9.15 about women as marriage partners.

⁴⁴ 9.2 is the model for Juvenal, Sat. 7.74-78 in which the rich miser Numitor (ironically described as down on his luck [infelix]) has no gifts for his client but plenty for his mistress. It is worth noting that the client here is a poet (7.78); see R. Colton, Juvenal's Use of Martial's Epigrams (Amsterdam 1991), 297f.

⁴⁵ In 5.56, 10.40 and 10.48, Lupus appears to be a real person and a friend of Martial. But the Lupus of 7.10 is deeply in debt, while in 11.55 he is a greedy legacy-hunter. In 11.108 he is a money-lender, and in 11.18 a wealthy patron who gives Martial a 'farm' smaller than a window-box.