THE EPIGRAMS OF MARTIAL
BOOK FIVE
Marcus Valerius Martialis (AD 38/41-102/4) was a Roman poet born in Bilbilis in Hispania Tarraconensis (Tarragonese Spain) of Spanish stock. He lived in Rome from 64 to ca. 100, then returned home. His Epigrams, much his most celebrated and substantial work, were published in Rome in twelve books, and have since been very highly valued for both their wit and what they reveal about life in Rome. Presented here are all references to Greek love in Book V, published in December 90.
The translation, the first in English to include frank translation of passages considered obscene by modern people, is by D. R. Shackleton Bailey for the Loeb Classical Library volumes 94, published by the Harvard University Press in 1993. Older translations either omitted the sexually most interesting epigrams or, much worse, misled as to their content by omitting or distorting critical phrases. The webpage editor would like to draw attention to the footnotes (all this website's) as being particularly important for this article, at least for readers not deeply familiar with Roman customs.
2
This epigram does not allude to Greek love and is included only for its proclamation that this book, unlike Martial’s first four books of epigrams, contains nothing “wanton.” It is indeed true that Books V and VIII are exceptional in containing no graphic sexual references. The proclamation is interesting for its implication that everything which follows, including the epigrams about love affairs and kisses between Roman men and their slave-boys, were an entirely decent subject for mention among women (virgin or married) and children.

Matrons and boys and maidens, to you my page is dedicated. You, sir, who are overmuch delighted by bolder naughtinesses and jests unveiled, read my four wanton little books. The fifth jokes with our Lord, for Germanicus to read without a blush in the presence of the Cecropian maid.[1] | Matronae puerique virginesque, vobis pagina nostra dedicatur. tu, quem nequitiae procaciores delectant nimium salesque nudi, lascivos lege quattuor libellos: quintus cum domino liber iocatur; quem Germanicus ore non rubenti coram Cecropia legat puella. |
46
I like only kisses snatched resistant and your anger pleases me more than your face. So in order to ask you often, Diadumenus, I beat you often.[2] My reward is that you neither fear me nor love me. | Basia dum nolo nisi quae luctantia carpsi et placet ira mihi plus tua quam facies, ut te saepe rogem, caedo, Diadumene, saepe: consequor hoc, ut me nec timeas nec ames. |

48
What does love not make us do? Encolpos has cut his hair, against his master’s will, but not against his orders. Pudens gave permission and wept. [3] So Phaethon’s father yielded the reins,[4] protesting at his audacity. So did ravished Hylas discard his locks,[5] so unmasked Achilles[6] —joyful while his mother grieved. But beard, do not hurry, do not believe the short hair, and in return for so great a gift come late. [7] | Quid non cogit amor? secuit nolente capillos Encolpos domino, non prohibente tamen. permisit flevitque Pudens: sic cessit habenis audaci questus de Phaethonte pater: talis raptus Hylas, talis deprensus Achilles deposuit gaudens, matre dolente, comas. sed tu ne propera — brevibus ne crede capillis — tardaque pro tanto munere, barba, veni. |
55
Tell me, whom are you carrying, queen of birds?[8] “The Thunderer.” Why is he not bearing thunderbolts in his hand? “He’s in love.” With what flame does the god burn? “For a boy.” Why do you look back at Jove softly with open mouth? “I speak of Ganymede.” | Dic mihi, quem portas, volucrum regina? ‘Tonantem.’ nulla manu quare fulmina gestat? ‘amat.’ quo calet igne deus? ‘pueri.’ cur mitis aperto respicis ore Iovem? ‘de Ganymede loquor.’ |

[1] “Our lord” is the reigning Emperor Domitian, here called Germanicus, one of his several flattering names. The Cecropian maid is the virgin goddess Minerva (Greek: Athene), patroness of both Athens (founded by Kekrops) and allegedly of Domitian. Martial is thus saying that the latter, who in his capacity of perpetual censor was in charge of public morals, could read the present book in front of the virgin goddess without embarrassment.
[2] The mention of often beating Diadumenus suggests he was a slave, which is also suggested by his name: the famous Diadumenos was a victorious athlete whose lost statue by the famous 5th century BC sculptor Polykleitos made him a canonical archetype of youthful beauty. Diadumenus is also mentioned in Epigrams III 65, where Martial waxes lyrical on the gragrance of his kisses and calls him a “cruel boy” for not giving them unstintingly, and VI 34 where he is asked to give non-stop kisses.
[3] Epigram I 31 related how the boy Encolpus vowed to cut his hair if his master and lover, Pudens, centurion and friend of Martial, obtained his desire to be made a Chief Centurion, so one must presume that Pudens has just now been thus promoted. Pueri delicati, beautiful and expensive slave-boys kept for love-making, unlike menial slave-boys, adult slaves or free boys or men, wore their hair long for sensual reasons (as described, for example, by Philo, On the Contemplative Life 50-52). This was so much the case that men used it as a means of knowing which boys it was lawful to seduce (Seneca the younger, Moral Letters XCV 24). Pudens presumably dared not let the boy he loved break his vow, but wept for the desecration of his beauty.
Considering roughly five years had passed since I 31, and all that is known about the age of the loved boy in antiquity, one may reasonably guess that Encolpus had been about twelve when first mentioned and was now about seventeen.
In Epigram IV 13, Martial had congratulated Pudens on his idyllic marriage, but evidently this made no difference to his interest in boys.
[4] Having promised his son Phaethon to grant whatever wish he asked, the sun god, Helios, felt reluctantly obliged to keep his promise to let him ride his chariot despite fearing the fatal consequences.
[5] Hylas was the loved-boy of the hero Herakles, a great warrior, and hence a flattering comparison to make with the centurion Pudens. While accompanying his lover on the expedition of the Argonauts and going to fetch water, Hylas was abducted by nymphs, leading the forlorn Herakles to abandon the expedition in a vain search for him. Presumably Hylas is here imagined as cutting short his hair to symbolise his transition from loved-boy to heterosexual young adult.
[6] The 15-year-old hero Achilles was cunningly discovered by Odysseus after being hidden by his goddess mother amongst the girls of Skyros with a view to preventing him from joining the expedition to Troy, which she knew would result in his death. Presumably his hair had been long and is here imagined as being cut short on his being unmasked.
[7] Martial is worried that nature or the gods, seeing Encolpus’s hair short, will presume him become a man and cause his beard to grow, ending his sexual desirability to his lover. He hopes that, in contrast, as recompense for the sacrifice made, that Encolpus’s beard will come late.
[8] The “queen of birds” is the eagle, described by Homer, The Iliad XXIV 292-3 as the favourite bird of Zeus, “the Thunderer”. Martial is here imagining himself in a dialogue with the eagle with which Zeus abducted the boy Ganymede he had fallen in love with. Martial may or may not have had in mind a real statue or painting depicting this.
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