Description: In his epigrams, Martial is a keen, sharp-tongued observer of Roman scenes and events, including the new Colosseum, country life, a debauchee's banquet, and the eruption of Vesuvius. His poems are sometimes obscene, in the tradition of the genre, sometimes affectionate or amusing, and always pointed.
Brief description: D. R. Shackleton Bailey was Pope Professor of Latin Language and Literature at Harvard University.
Review Quotes: 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"