Epigrams, Volume I

Spectacles. Books 1–5

Martial, D. R. Shackleton Bailey

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Harvard Uni.Press Academi
01 January 1993

Poetry; Literary essays; History; Latin

Series: Loeb Classical Library

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

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

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

By: Martial
Edited and translated by: D. R. Shackleton Bailey
Imprint: Harvard Uni.Press Academi
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Volume: No. 94
Dimensions: Height: 162mm, Width: 108mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 318g
ISBN: 9780674995550
ISBN 10: 0674995554
Series: Loeb Classical Library
Pages: 434
Publication Date: 01 January 1993
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Epigrams, Volume I: Spectacles. Books 1–5

The publication of a new edition in the Loeb Classical Library of the poems of Martial—Latin verse and English prose face à face…offers an occasion for thinking about the way Martial’s presence shows itself in English poetry and about the poet in person… A reliable English version is always good to possess and here we have one that gives us access to many a dark and difficult corner of the original Latin. -- Charles Tomlinson * New Criterion * Shackleton Bailey’s is a remarkable achievement, and from now on his ‘Loebs’ will be the best means by which anyone can get to know Martial, as well as the essential first work of reference for scholars. -- P. Howell * Classical Review *