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Martial: A Social Guide PDF

158 Pages·2007·1.457 MB·English
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Martial: A Social Guide This page intentionally left blank MARTIAL A Social Guide Art L. Spisak Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON (cid:129) NEW DELHI (cid:129) NEW YORK (cid:129) SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in 2007 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. © Art L. Spisak, 2007 Art L. Spisak has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: PB: 978-0-7156-3620-6 ePDF: 978-1-4725-3777-5 ePub: 978-1-4725-3778-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Ray Davies Contents Introduction 1 The problem 1 The ancient Greek iambic tradition 4 Martial as iambographer 7 1. Invective 15 The origin of Greek iambics 15 Roman invective 20 Martial’s invective 22 2. Amicitia 35 Reciprocity and friendship 35 Martial’s amicitia: what is it? 40 Social exchange 46 Fides 49 3. Poems of Praise 53 Praise poetry as social control 54 Reciprocity: you owe me 56 Martial’s petitions to Domitian: secondary exchange 61 Marital as power broker 68 4. The Good Life 73 The urban-rural antithesis 74 The pastoral ideal: epigram 10.47 81 The golden age of Saturn 90 Conclusion 97 Notes 101 Bibliography 139 Index 147 v This page intentionally left blank Introduction … the picture [of Martial] presented in our literary histories is that of a fundamentally incoherent poet, obsessed with his per- sonal situation, at the mercy of random sexual and social prejudices; an opportunistic poet with a commonplace philoso- phy, who has chosen the minor genre of epigram to display his skills at light verse, to be rated as inferior even in this to his acknowledged model Catullus …1 The problem Martial’s poetry has survived for almost two millennia and over that long span of time has entertained many readers with its wit while also enlightening them with its perceptive treatment of human behaviour. Yet, as entertaining and engaging as people have found Martial’s poetry, because of the particular literary and social milieu that has influenced and shaped its form, content, and tone, it has been much misunderstood and maligned. Most frequently it has been slighted as poetry not worth much consideration: compare, for example, John Sullivan’s summarization (above) of the particular objections which critics and general readers have had to it in the past.2 Then, in reaction to such devaluation of Martial’s poetry, some scholarship in the recent past has swung to the other extreme: over-interpretation of the text, for example, attributing a politically subversive subtext to it.3 Much of this slighting, maligning, and over-interpretation of Martial’s poetry can be remedied by an understanding of how it fits into the literary tradition and also its social context: specifically, how Martial’s poetry related to the iambic tradition in ancient Greek literature, and then to Catullus’ poetry and Roman satire; and also how his poetry reflected and took meaning from the social practices of his readership. As a good representative example of the maligning of his work, one could consider the criticism of the obscenity and sexual content in 1 Martial: A Social Guide Martial’s poetry, which in the main has led to damning misperceptions about the significance of his verse. The 1919 Loeb English translation of the poems of Martial by Walter C.A. Ker had the so-called ‘inde- scribably foul’ epigrams rendered into Italian.4 Certainly Ker should be given much credit for even doing a translation of Martial at all – a daring undertaking at that time – and for his rendering into English of at least some of the so-called ‘objectionable’ poems, albeit with obscenities either deleted or very loosely and benignly paraphrased. Ker’s only explanation of his censoring of Martial’s poems’ obscenity and sexual content was: ‘All epigrams possible of translation by use of dashes or paraphrases have been rendered into English, the wholly impossible ones only in Italian.’5 As it turns out, this obscenity and sexual material is very important to Martial’s poetry – that is, there is good reason for his use of it.6 For, as Martial himself indicates, obscenity and sexual content were a vital part of his poetry: they were, in fact, as will be shown, part of his unique way of reaching his audience.7 Particularly damaging is the impression that such doctor- ing and rendering of the Latin text gives of Martial: as if he were only some smut peddler with little literary and personal integrity. Other elements of Martial’s poetry – such as its alleged preoccupa- tion with money or adulation of the Emperor Domitian, who is generally perceived as bad – have produced similarly misguided reac- tions. Just a few quotations as examples will suffice. Martial has been perceived as an ‘unlovely character who courted the favours of the great with the grossest flattery’.8 Yet, in fact, behind Martial’s alleged preoccupation with money and his seemingly excessive praise of friends and emperor is a sophisticated system of social exchange or reciprocity that was fundamental to friendship, business, politics, and sense of community in the ancient Roman world (and remains so today). Also Martial has been described as ‘a court jester’ who ‘never makes us think’ and whose poetry is ‘unobjectionably trivial’ and without any ‘moral reflection’.9 Court jester can indeed apply to Mar- tial, but only if one is aware of the serious and vital role jesters traditionally were expected to fulfil for society: namely, to speak the truth candidly, although never maliciously, to those who most need to hear it, but oftentimes do not – that is, powerful persons. As for the charge that Martial’s poetry never makes us think and is trivial and without moral reflection, that perhaps results from the festive, play- 2 Introduction ful, and humorous tone that Martial employs: something that makes the truth more palatable to his audience. In fact, his verse, although certainly not intellectually deep or profound, is highly inspirited, affective, and ethical in tone: that is, it affects the emotions and the spirit, and always reflects ancient Roman social views and practices. To make matters even more confusing, Martial (via his poet-per- sona) more than a few times claims that his poetry is written for entertainment and fun.10 Indeed, he rejects the laborious process of writing what was traditionally considered to be serious and worth- while poetry, namely epic or tragedy, in order to write his own brand of so-called light poetry (see, e.g., epigram 8.3.11-22). At the same time, though, Martial claims that his poetry is actually of more value than poetry of the so-called higher genres, epic and tragedy, for example, because it is about real-life issues and actually has some- thing useful and beneficial to say to its reader (see, e.g., 4.49). Moreover, his poetry is very well crafted, frequently allusive and referential, thus showing his familiarity and facility with the Greek and Roman literary tradition, all of which suggests that he did take his role as a poet very seriously. As a result, even critics with the best intentions sometimes hardly know what to make of his poetry: for it turns out that his poems are as easy to over-interpret as they are to dismiss as hardly worth consideration.11 In response to this ambiguity of the nature and effect of Martial’s poetry, this study, through consideration of Martial’s connection with the literary tradition and the social context for his poetry, addresses this general question: how did his poems affect his audience. Of primary concern here, besides the already mentioned objections to certain areas of content of Martial’s poetry (for example sexual mate- rial or adulation), is whether Martial’s poetry had the effect of being anything more than entertaining. This study maintains that Martial certainly entertained with his poems, but that they, in the main, were also meant to instruct at a personal level.12 The aggregate result of this instruction at the personal level was a manual or guide that reflected and voiced the ethical views and concerns of his readership. As Sulli- van puts it: In fact almost all of Martial’s work is focused by a unified and hierarchical vision of imperial society as it should be … It is a 3

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