biography
| name: |
Martial
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| |
in full Marcus Valerius Martialis
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.40–c.104)
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| biography:
| Epigrammatist, born at Bilbilis, Hispania Tarraconensis, near the modern Catalayud. He went to Rome in 64, and became a client of the influential Spanish house of the Senecas, through which he found a patron in Calpurnius Piso. He then returned to Spain. Of his c.1500 epigrams, possibly the most celebrated is ‘Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare: hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te’. Thomas Brown (1663–1704) based on it his ‘I do not love you, Dr. Fell’. Martial's 12 books of epigrams constitute a sardonic though not necessarily misanthropic commentary on the people and manners of the day. His influence on Spanish literature can be traced in the writings of Gracián, Baltasar del Alcázar, Ruiz de Alarcón, Ramón de la Cruz, Forner, Iglesias, and Jérica. |
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