THE EPIGRAMS OF MARTIAL
BOOK ELEVEN
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 XI, published in December 96.
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 480, 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 as being particularly important for this article, at least for readers not deeply familiar with Roman customs.
XI 6
| On the sumptuous feast days of the old Scythe-bearer,[1] over which King Dice-box rules, methinks you allow me, cap-clad[2] Rome, to sport in toil-free verse. You smile. Permission granted then, I am not forbidden. Pale cares, get you far hence. Whatever comes my way, let me out with it and no moody meditation. Boy, mix me bumpers half and half, such as Pythagoras used to give to Nero, mix them, Dindymus, and not too long between them.[3] I can do nothing sober, but when I drink, fifteen poets will come to my aid. Give me kisses, Catullian kisses.[4] If they shall be as many as he said, I will give you Catullus’ Sparrow.[5] | Unctis falciferi senis diebus, regnator quibus imperat fritillus, versu ludere non laborioso permittis, puto, pilleata Roma. [v] risisti; licet ergo, non vetamur. pallentes procul hinc abite curae; quidquid venerit obvium loquamur morosa sine cogitatione. misce dimidios, puer, trientes, [x] quales Pythagoras dabat Neroni, misce, Dindyme, sed frequentiores: possum nil ego sobrius; bibenti succurrent mihi quindecim poetae. da nunc basia, sed Catulliana: [xv] quae si tot fuerint quot ille dixit, donabo tibi Passerem Catulli. |
XI 8
| Perfume of faded balsam in yesterday’s vases; last aroma that falls from a curving jet of saffron; scent of apples ripening in their winter box, or of a field luxuriant with spring foliage, or of silks from our Lady’s[6] Palatine presses, or of amber warmed in a girl’s hand, or of a jar of black Falernian[7] broken, but a long way off, or of a garden keeping Sicanian bees; odor of Cosmus[8] alabaster boxes and the hearths of the gods, or of a garland just fallen from richly pomaded locks—why speak of this or that? They are not enough. Mix them all together: such is the fragrance of my boy’s morning kisses.[9] Do you wish to know his name? If it’s only on account of the kisses, I’ll tell you. You swear it. You are too anxious to know, Sabinus.[10] | Lassa quod hesterni spirant opobalsama dracti, ultima quod curvo quae cadit aura croco; poma quod hiberna maturescentia capsa, arbore quod verna luxuriosus ager; de Palatinis dominae quod Serica prelis, sucina virginea quod regelata manu; amphora quod nigri, sed longe, fracta Falerni, quod qui Sicanias detinet hortus apes; quod Cosmi redolent alabastra focique deorum, quod modo divitibus lapsa corona comis—singula quid dicam? non sunt satis; omnia misce: hoc fragrant pueri basia mane mei. scire cupis nomen? si propter basia, dicam. iurasti. nimium scire, Sabine, cupis. |
XI 22
| That you rub snow-white Galaesus’[11] soft kisses with your hard mouth, that you lie with naked Ganymede —it’s too much, who denies it? But let it be enough. Refrain at least from stirring their groins with your fornicating hand. Where smooth boys are concerned, the hand is a worse offender than the cock; the fingers make and precipitate manhood. Hence come the goat and rapid hairs[12] and a beard to make a mother marvel, hence baths in broad daylight displease. Nature divided the male: one part was created for girls, one for men. Use your part.[13] | Mollia quod nivei duro teris ore Galaesi basia, quod nudo cum Ganymede iaces, —quis negat?—hoc nimium est. sed sit satis; inguina saltem parce fututrici sollicitare manu. levibus in pueris plus haec quam mentula peccat et faciunt digiti praecipitantque virum: inde tragus celeresque pili mirandaque matri barba nec in clara balnea luce placent. divisit natura marem: pars una puellis, una viris genita est. utere parte tua. |
XI 23
| Sila[14] is ready to marry me on any terms; but on no terms do I want to marry Sila. However, when she insisted, I said: “At our betrothal you will give me a million by way of dowry in gold.” “What could be more reasonable?” “And I shall not fuck you when I am your husband, even on our wedding night, neither shall I share my bed with you. I shall embrace my mistress, and you will not forbid it; when bidden, you will send me your maid. The page will give me lascivious kisses before your eyes, whether he’s mine or yours. You will come to dinner, but you will recline apart from me, so that my mantle is not touched by yours. You will kiss me seldom, and only on request, and not as a bride but as an elderly mother. If you can stomach all that, if there’s nothing you won’t put up with—you’ll find somebody willing to marry you, Sila.”[15] | Nubere Sila mihi nulla non lege parata est; sed Silam nulla ducere lege volo. cum tamen instaret, ‘deciens mihi dotis in auro sponsa dabis’ dixi. ‘quid minus esse potest?’ ‘nec futuam quamvis prima te nocte maritus, communis tecum nec mihi lectus erit; complectarque meam, nec tu prohibebis, amicam, ancillam mittes et mihi iussa tuam. te spectante dabit nobis lasciva minister basia, sive meus sive erit ille tuus. ad cenam venies, sed sic divisa recumbes ut non tangantur pallia nostra tuis. oscula rara dabis nobis et non dabis ultro, nec quasi nupta dabis sed quasi mater anus. si potes ista pati, si nil perferre recusas, invenies qui te ducere, Sila, velit.’ |
XI 26
| Telesphorus[16], my welcome repose and beguiling care, the like of whom was never before in my arms, give me kisses, boy, wet with old Falernian[17], give me cups made smaller by your lips. If beyond this you add the true joys of Venus, I would say that Jupiter is no better off with Ganymede. | O mihi grata quies, o blanda, Telesphore, cura, qualis in amplexu non fuit ante meo, basia da nobis vetulo, puer, uda Falerno, pocula da labris facta minora tuis. addideris super haec Veneris si gaudia vera, esse negem melius cum Ganymede Iovi. |
XI 28
| Nasica, a mental case, assaulted Doctor Euctus’ Hylas[18] and sodomized him. I fancy he was sane. | Invasit medici Nasica phreneticus Eucti et percidit Hylan. hic, puto, sanus erat. |
XI 43
| Catching me with a boy, wife, you upbraid me harshly and point out that you too have an arse. How often did Juno say the same to her wanton Thunderer![19] Nonetheless, he lies with strapping Ganymede. The Tirynthian used to lay aside his bow and bend Hylas over: do you think Megara had no buttocks?[20] Fugitive Daphne tormented Phoebus: but the Oebalian boy bade those flames vanish.[21] Though Briseis often lay with her back to the Aeacid, his smooth friend was closer to him.[22] So kindly don’t give masculine names to your belongings, wife, and think of yourself as having two cunts.[23] | Deprensum in puero tetricis me vocibus, uxor, corripis et culum te quoque habere refers. dixit idem quotiens lascivo Iuno Tonanti! ille tamen grandi cum Ganymede iacet. incurvabat Hylan posito Tirynthius arcu: tu Megaran credis non habuisse natis? torquebat Phoebum Daphne fugitiva: sed illas Oebalius flammas iussit abire puer. Briseis multum quamvis aversa iaceret, Aeacidae proprior levis amicus erat. parce tuis igitur dare mascula nomina rebus teque puta cunnos, uxor, habere duos. |
XI 45
| Whenever you cross the threshold of a labelled cubicle, whether boy or girl has taken your fancy, you are not content with doors and a curtain and a bolt; you demand for yourself a greater measure of secrecy. If there be a suspicion of the smallest chink, any tiny holes bored by a naughty needle, they are plastered over.[24] Nobody is so delicately, so anxiously modest who either sodomizes or fornicates, Cantharus.[25] | Intrasti quotiens inscriptae limina cellae, seu puer arrisit sive puella tibi, contentus non es foribus veloque seraque, secretumque iubes grandius esse tibi: oblinitur minimae si qua est suspicio rimae punctaque lasciva quae terebrantur acu. nemo est tam teneri tam sollicitique pudoris qui vel pedicat, Canthare, vel futuit. |
XI 56
| Stoic Chaeremon, because you laud death overmuch, do you wish me to admire and look up to your courage? A jug with a broken handle makes this valor of yours, and a dismal hearth unwarmed by any fire, and a mat, and a gnat, and the frame of a bare truckle bed, and a short gown worn night and day alike. What a hero you are, who can do without dregs of red vinegar and straw and black bread! Come, let your pillow swell with Leuconian wool, and silky purple drape your couches, and a boy sleep with you who lately tormented the guests with his rosy face as he mixed the Caecuban[26]: oh, how eager you will be to live three time the years of Nestor,[27] how you will want to lose no instant of any day! It is easy to hold life cheap with straightened means: he who can be wretched plays the man. | Quod nimium mortem, Chaeremon Stoice, laudas, vis animum mirer suspiciamque tuum? hanc tibi virtutem fracta facit urceus ansa, et tristis nullo qui tepet igne focus, et teges et cimex et nudi sponda grabati, et brevis atque eadem nocte dieque toga. o quam magnus homo es, qui faece rubentis aceti et stipula et nigro pane carere potes! Leuconicis agedum tumeat tibi culcita lanis constringatque tuos purpura pexa toros, dormiat et tecum modo qui, dum Caecuba miscet, convivas roseo torserat ore puer: o quam tu cupies ter vivere Nestoris annos et nihil ex ulla perdere luce voles! rebus in angustis facile est contemnere vitam: fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest. |
XI 58
| When you see that I want it, Telesphorus[28], that I’m taut, you make large demands. Suppose I want to refuse, can I? And unless I say under oath “I’ll give it,” you withdraw those buttocks that let you take many liberties with me. What if my barber, with razor drawn above my throat, were to ask for freedom and wealth? I would promise, for he is not a barber, asking at such a time, but a bandit; fear is a peremptory thing. But once the razor is safely in its curved case, I shall break that barber’s legs and hands together. To you, however, I shall do nothing, but with washed wool my cock shall tell your eager avarice to go suck.[29] | Cum me velle vides tentumque, Telesphore, sentis, magna rogas—puta me velle negare: licet?— et nisi iuratus dixi ‘dabo’, subtrahis illas, permittunt in me quae tibi multa, natis. quid si me tonsor, cum stricta novacula supra est, tunc libertatem divitiasque roget? promittam; neque enim rogat illo tempore tonsor, latro rogat; res est imperiosa timor: sed fuerit curva cum tuta novacula theca, frangam tonsori crura manusque simul. at tibi nil faciam, sed lota mentula lana λαικάζεν cupidae dicet avaritiae. |
XI 63
| You watch me in the bath, Philomusus, and ask from time to time why my smooth boys are so well endowed. I’ll answer your question frankly: they sodomize Nosy Parkers, Philomusus.[30] | Spectas nos, Philomuse, cum lavamur, et quare mihi tam mutuniati sint leves pueri subinde quaeris. dicam simpliciter tibi roganti: pedicant, Philomuse, curiosos. |
XI 70
| Tucca, have you the heart to sell those you bought for a hundred thousand apiece?[31] Can you sell your weeping “masters,”[32] Tucca? Do not their blandishments, their words and artless plaints move you, and their necks wounded by your tooth? Ah villainy! Their tunics are lifted on either side, their groins revealed, and their cocks, formed by your hand,[33] inspected. If cash down is your pleasure, sell silver, tables[34], murrines, farms, town house; sell old slaves, they will forgive you,[35] sell your father’s slaves; sell everything, you wretch, so you don’t sell the boys. Buying them is self-indulgence (who doubts or denies it?), but selling them is self-indulgence far greater.[36] | Vendere, Tucca, potes centenis milibus emptos? plorantis dominos vendere, Tucca, potes? nec te blanditiae, nec verba rudesve querelae, nec te dente tuo saucia colla movent? ah facinus! tunica patet inguen utrimque levata, inspiciturque tua mentula facta manu. si te delectat numerata pecunia, vende argentum, mensas, murrina, rura, domum; vende senes servos, ignoscent, vende paternos: ne pueros vendas, omnia vende miser. luxuria est emere hos—quis enim dubitatve negatve?—, sed multo maior vendere luxuria est. |
XI 73
| When I ask you, Lygdus[37], you always swear that you’ll come to me and you appoint a time and appoint a place. But when I have lain taut with protracted excitement in vain, often my left hand comes to my rescue in your stead. What should I wish upon you, false lad, for such deserts and such morals? Lygdus, may you carry a one-eyed mistress’ sunshade.[38] | Venturum iuras semper mihi, Lygde, roganti constituisque horam constituisque locum. cum frustra iacui longa prurigine tentus, succurrit pro te saepe sinistra mihi. quid precer, o fallax, meritis et moribus istis? umbellam luscae, Lygde, feras dominae. |
XI 78
| Practice feminine embraces, Victor[39], do, and let your cock learn a trade unknown to it. The veils are a-weaving for your fiancée, the girl is already being dressed, soon the newly-wed will be cropping your boys.[40] She will let her eager spouse sodomize her once, while she fears the first wound of the new lance, but her nurse and her mother will forbid its happening often and say: “She’s your wife, not your boy.” Ah what embarrassments, what ordeals you will suffer if a cunt is something foreign to you! Therefore hand yourself over as a novice to an instructress in Subura.[41] She will make a man of you. A virgin is a poor teacher. | Utere femineis complexibus, utere, Victor, ignotumque sibi mentula discat opus. flammea texuntur sponsae, iam virgo paratur, tondebit pueros iam nova nupta tuos. pedicare semel cupido dabit illa marito, dum metuit teli vulnera prima novi: saepius hoc fieri nutrix materque vetabunt et dicent: ‘uxor, non puer, ista tibi est.’ heu quantos aestus, quantos patiere labores, si fuerit cunnus res peregrina tibi! ergo Suburanae tironem trade magistrae. illa virum faciet; non bene virgo docet. |
XI 87
| Once you were rich, but then you were a pedicator[42] and for a long time no woman was known to you. Now you run after crones. The things poverty makes men do! Poverty, Charidemus, makes you a fornicator. | Dives eras quondam: sed tunc pedico fuisti et tibi nulla diu femina nota fuit. nunc sectaris anus. o quantum cogit egestas! illa fututorem te, Charideme, facit. |
XI 94
| That you are green with jealousy and run down my little books wherever you go, I forgive: circumcised poet, you show your sense. This too leaves me indifferent, that you plunder my poems while you carp at them: circumcised poet, herein also you show your sense. What does upset me is that born in Jerusalem itself you sodomize my boy, circumcised poet. So! You deny it, you swear to me by the temple of the Thunderer. [43] I don’t believe you. Swear, circumcised one, by Anchialus.[44] | Quod nimium lives nostris et ubique libellis detrahis, ignosco: verpe poeta, sapis. hoc quoque non curo, quod cum mea carmina carpas, compilas: et sic, verpe poeta, sapis. illud me cruciat, Solymis quod natus in ipsis pedicas puerum, verpe poeta, meum. ecce negas iurasque mihi per templa Tonantis. non credo: iura, verpe, per Anchialum. |
XI 104
In a long epigram castigating his (maybe imaginary) wife for being puritanical and, amongst others things, not letting him pedicate her as he says many other highly-reputed wives had allowed their husbands:
| Before the Dardanian page mixed their sweet cups, Juno was Jupiter’s Ganymede.[45] […] | […] dulcia Dardanio nondum miscente ministro pocula Iuno fuit pro Ganymede Iovi. […] |
Continue to Book XII
[1] The old Scythe-beare is the god Saturn, hence the feast is the Saturnalia, the main holiday of the Roman year, which by this date lasted five to seven days of December. It was characterised by general licence and revelry and was thus the most suitable time for obscene poetry, suiting Martial’s purpose.
[2] The pilleus, or cap of liberty worn by manumitted slaves (as in Epigram II 68), was worn more generally worn at the Saturnalia as a symbol of license.
[3] Wine was most often mixed equally with water and, as such, considered an aphrodisiac, which pure wine was not. Pythagoras was a freedman whom the Emperor Nero made his “husband” – the point of referring to them is not known, so it may allude to a story about them well-known in Martial’s time, but since lost. Dindymus as a sexually desirable boy serving wine at a feast was clearly a puer delicatus. The point of asking for small but frequent measures of wine is presumably to allow Martial to kiss him more often ashe pours them.
[4] In other words, countless kisses, as in Catullus’s poem 5.
[5] This refers to Catullus’s poem 3, lamenting the death of a girl’s pet sparrow, so interpreting Martial’s reference to it hinges on what Catullus meant. See N. M. Kay, Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, pp.75-76 for detailed and convincing argument that Martial’s meaning here is phallic. The reward that Dindymus will get if he kisses Martial enough is the poet’s cock: an aroused Martial will pedicate him. If Dindymus might not see that as such a great gift, that only adds to the humour.
[6] Our Lady means the wife of the reigning Emperor, Nerva, whose palace was on the Palatine hill.
[7] A dark red wine.
[8] Cosmus was an oft-mentioned producer of luxury perfumes (and Martial’s many allusions to them could have been part of an advertising campaign!).
[9] “Morning” is doubly important here. First, people’s breath was believed not to be at its best then, so it is emphatic to say Martial’s boy’ breath was delightful even then. Secondly, it implies Martial and the boy have spent the night together.
[10] Martial is teasing Sabinus (probably the Caesius Sabinus several times mentioned by Martial) by arousing his interest in the boy and finally refusing to divulge his name.
[11] Galaesus was a river near Tarentum and may indicate the boy’s birthplace, as slaves were sometimes named in this way, but it is especially apt here as it suggests the softness and whiteness of the wool of the Tarentine district.
[12] Goats were considered especially libidinous animals. “It was thought that secondary hair grew quicker on the libidinous, though they also suffered from baldness (Arist[otle]. Hist[ory of]. Anim[als]. 518a18f. ; cf. Pl[iny]. N[atural].H[istory]. 11.251).” (N. M. Kay, Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, p. 120)
[13] The unknown man to whom this epigram is addressed is admonished for not being satisfied with kissing and pedicating Galaesus, but wanking him too, which Martial believes will hasten his becoming a man, cause a beard and repulsive body hair to grow and make him distasteful to look at naked in daylight. Men should stick to the part of the boy nature has designed for them (his bottom, for pedication) and leave his cock to girls, for whom it is designed.
Given the obvious humour in the epigram, Martial may not be being serious in his physiological theory that sexual arousal hastens the onset of manhood, but he was not quite alone in it. Aristotle believed that the voice breaks deeper in experienced boys (History of Animals 581a). The English writer Frederick Rolfe, in a letter from Venice of 1909, described with graphic horror the changes he believed would soon come over the body of his boy Amadeo Amadei following the expected event that “some great fat slow cow of a girl will just open herself wide, and lie quite still, and drain him dry .”
Even if Martial seriously believed that manual play with a boys cock might hasten the advent of manhood, his stricture that one should therefore avoid it still looks more like an amusingly facetious link towards his final provocative pronouncement than something he can have seriously meant. He is prone to tongue-in-cheek admonitions. It is probaby comparable to his epigram IX 42 admonishing in a parodic over-the-top manner for always wanking rather than having sexual intercourse, while we know other epigrams of his (II 43 and XI 73) that he resorted to wanking himself and saw nothing necessarily wrong with it. Nevertheless, his admonition that boys should not be stimulated would be so shocking and important in its implications if it were meant sincerely that it had better be examined further.
The first reason for treating it as a joke is that nothing comparable is said by Martial elsewhere or by any other Roman writer. N. M. Kay (Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, p. 118) draws comparisons with the convention on Greek vases of depicting boys with cocks that remain flaccid even when being fondled by their lovers, as both are upholding the theory that the boy should not receive pleasure. In reality, however, they are opposites. The artistic convention, which he points out is absurdly unrealistic regarding what could be expected when a healthy adolescent boy was fondled, is to avoid Greek discomfort with the idea of boys enjoying the passive role by pretending they could not be aroused even by fondling on the part of the man. By contrast, Martial in this epigram is very much admitting they can be and recommending avoiding it for that exact reason.
Secondly, other men did seek to excite their boys sexually. Aristophanes, Birds 142 implies that fondling a boy is balls is the expected behaviour of a suitor hoping to win him over, as does Addaios in the Greek Anthology X 20. Straton in the same, XII 7 says that having something to occupy one’s hand during penetration is an advantage of doing it with a boy as opposed to a woman. In Petronius’s story of the boy of Pergamon (Satyricon 86 ff), the tired narrator is a bit reluctant to pedicate the boy a third time, but does so because the boy wants it and is ripe for the pleasure. The result of the narrator banging away was that the boy “got what he wanted.” We are not told if this was purely from the exitement of being pedicated or with the help of the narrator’s hand, but the present point is that it was the expected outcome.
Speaking more generally, it is surely intuitive that a man will want to give pleasure to one he believes he loves, whether woman or boy, besides seeking validation of his own attractiveness and virilty through his power to give orgasm through penetrating him or her. With a boy, the supreme satisfaction must therefore be if he ejaculates during the act, which can only be guaranteed with the help of the hand Martial purports to forbid. A rapist would not care about this, but such is definitely not the persona of Martial in his epigrams. While many of the boys who succumbed to his advances may have felt under some sort of obligation to do so, he presents himself as needing their willingness and sometimes being frustrated.
[14] “The name is suggestive of a snub nose, considered an ugly physical defect.” (Rosario Moreno Soldevila, Alberto Marina Castillo and Juan Fernández Valverde, A Prosopography to Martial’s Epigrams, 2019, p. 558)
[15] “This piece is a witty exploitation of the Roman ideal of the submissive and obedient wife, frequently voiced in epitaphs […]: M. reduces it to absurdity by cataloguing the sexual humiliations Sila is to suffer — she will be more of a grandmother than a wife. Lives of husband and spouse will be entirely separate […]. M.’s demands on Sila are ridiculous and intended to be so. (lines 2 and 15; what he is after is, of course, the dowry), though it is well known that Roman marriage allowed far greater freedom to the husband than the wife: ‘Unfaithfulness in a husband […] was, in general, a concern neither to his conscience nor to the law’ […]. But even so, there was some protection for the wife, and a marriage without affection was considered no marriage [sources cited].” N. M. Kay (Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, pp. 121-2)
[16] Telesphorus, also mentioned below in epigram XI 58 and here acting as a cupbearer as well as the object of the poet’s amorous interest, was evidently a puer delicatus.
[17] Falernian was a fine wine.
[18] The genitive case used suggests Hylas was probably Euctus’s slave, as does his name, that of the boy loved by the mythological hero Herakles: pueri delicati were often named after boys famous in the history of pederasty.
[19] The Thunderer is Jupiter, who caused thunder, was husband of Juno at the same time as being lover of the boy Ganymede.
[20] The Tirynthian was Herakles who was married to Megara while pedicating his beloved boy Hylas.
[21] Apollo chased the nymph Daphne, but his lust for her was quenched by the boy Hyakinthos, of the family of the Spartan King Oibalos.
[22] The translator’s “Aeacus’s son” has been replaced by the more accurate “the Aeacid”, ie. descendant of Aeacus, the Latin name for Achilles’s grandfather Aiakos. Martial imagines Achilles pedicating a boy (note the words “smooth friend” – emphasis added) while Briseis, the girl he loved, lay with her back to him. Presumably the boy meant is Achilles’s friend Patroklos and Martial follows the tragedian Euripides in imaging Achilles as his erastes, though most accounts (including Homer, Iliad XI 786f, the earliest) made Patroklos the elder.
[23] “In other words, while he is perfectly willing to penetrate his wife anally, her anus is not a boy’s anus, but only a second vagina.” (Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality, 2nd edition, Oxford, 2010, p.25).
[24] The details make it clear that it is sex in a brothel that is being envisioned. Each prostitute therein had his own cubicle (Juvenal, Satires VI 122f, for example), which was labelled with information as to his name, price and whether or not he was engaged (Petronius, Satyricon VII 3). “the price ranged from two to eighteen asses, so practically anyone could afford a visit. But they were also a part of every adolescent Roman male’s education (cf. Cic. pro Cael. 48f.; Porph. ap. Hor. Sat. 1.2.31f.), so some must have been more exclusive than others.” (N. M. Kay, Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, p. 167)
[25] This epigram is very valuable for its clear exposition of Roman sexual mores. There is no need to be fussy over whether one can be secretly seen fucking a boy or a girl since there is nothing shameful about either act and which one chooses is simply a matter of one’s “fancy”. It is imputed that Cantharus, by contrast, likes to do other things that are shameful and which he must therefore go to lengths to ensure no one sees. Most likely he likes to fellate or perform cunnilingus or to be pedicated, which many of Martial’s other epigrams make clear is shameful for a free Roman man.
[26] Caecuban was an “exceedingly good wine” (Strabon, Geography V.3.6) from a small plain in Latium.
[27] Nestor was the King of Pylos and oldest Greek king in Homer’s Iliad. He lived three generations.
The epigram is attacking Chaeremon for praising death simply because he is poor. If he had, amongst other things, a beautiful boy to sleep with, he would be eager for extremely long life.
[28] Pueri delicati named Telesphorus have already been mentioned by Martial in epigrams X 83 and XI 26. This epigram plays on his name, which is the Greek for “bringing fulfillment”. [Website footnote]
[29] The meaning of this is explored in detail by N. M. Kay in Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, p. 199. His conclusion is that after pedicating Telsphorus, Martial wipes his cock with lana lota (washed wool), “the expression indicating the moment when his desire is satiated and he can go back on his word” [to give in to ”large demands” earlier made.] The degree of immorality of Martial breaking his promise needs to be seen in the light of beliefs about remunerating boys for sex. It was well accepted in antiquity that, even where a pederastic affair was not mercenary, the boy could expect and even ask for small gifts, but for him to ask for money or expensive gifts was shameful because it equated him with a prostitute. The sometimes delicate distinction is the subject of a dialogue in Aristophanes’s comedy Wealth 153f.
[30] “Voyeurs and worse, like Philomusus, must have been an occupational hazard at Roman baths [citations from other writers given …]. The close of the epigram is a threat of punishment for Philomusus’ curiosity […]. Here there is additional humour: Philomusus’ original question would have been intended as a jocular insult, suggesting that M. was bathing with muluntati who were the active partners, while he was the passive, in homosexual acts (probably fellatio: cf. 3.73; 11.72.1n.; but note also 3.71). His retort adroitly turns the insult back on the questioner.” (N. M. Kay, Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, pp. 208-9)
[31] The sum meant is 100,000 sestertii for each boy, then equivalent to 1,000 aurei or 7.3 kg. of gold, a huge sum, but not impossible.
[32] Favorite boy slaves were sometimes paradoxically so addressed or referred to by their masters; see XI 70 ii, XII .66 viii and Xenia 69 ii for other examples from Martial. The idea is that these boys dominated their owners’ emotions and attentions.
[33] “These boys’ penes have developed from immaturity to maturity because of Tucca’s handling of them; for this pubertal development ‘not only in size but also in appearance’, cf. Arist. Hist. Anim. 581a.” (N. M. Kay, Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, pp. 220). See epigram XI 22 above and the third footnote to it for further comment.
[34] Lest tables and murrines seem out of place in this list of expensive items, it should be pointed out that “tables could be luxurious and expensive: Petronius refers to ones of citrus-wood from Africa, which were items of the grossest extravagance (119.26f.), and also to ones of solid silver (73.5); Seneca had a set of five hundred identical ones of citrus-wood with ivory legs (Dio 61.10.3); M. speaks of golden ones (3.31.4), and has Mamurra the window-shopper eyeing ones beyond his financial means (9.59.7f.); and Juvenal also includes tables in his symbols of luxury (1.75; 137f.; 11.120f.).” (N. M. Kay, Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, pp. 221), while the emperor Nero spent a million sestertii on one murrine (Pliny, Natural History XXXVII 21f.)
[35] Though most would probably have shared Plutarch’s viewpoint in castigating Cato the Elder for inhumanity in selling off his old slaves when he thought them no longer worth feeding (Cato the Elder IV 5f), Tucca’s old slaves will forgive him because they realise what a crime it would be for him to sell his boys.
[36] It is self-indulgence because he is selling what he needs and cannot live without, wild, excessive and therefore immoral behaviour.
[37] The Greek for “white marble”, Lygdus was a suitable name for a puer delicatus. The Emperor Tiberius’s only son Drusus was poisoned by a eunuch boy he loved with this name (Tacitus, The Annals, IV 10).
[38] A Martialian grotesquerie. A one-eyed mistress is a cock, while an umbrella has an open mouth. Fellatio was considered disgusting by Martial and most Romans. Moreover, carrying a sunshade for a lady was usually considered a degrading form of service.
[39] It is usually assumed that this Victor is Martial’s friend the poet Voconius Victor, whose puer delicatus, Thestylus, was the subject of VII 29. In any case, it appears (without precedent in Roman literature?) that this Victor was so exclusively boysexual that he had no experience of sex apart from pedicating boys and might be clueless as to how to deflower his bride.
[40] Cropping Victor’s boys means cutting their hair short. Long hair was a characteristic feature of pueri delicati and the cutting of boys’ long hair was a coming-of-age ceremony that signified he was passing into an adult phase of life in which he could no longer take the passive role. Possibly it was widespread practice for a bridegroom’s pueri delicati to be cropped to signify his new dedication of himself, at least in the short term, to procreation and marital duty.
[41] In other words, Victor should visit a brothel with women for instruction in how to fuck them. Brothels were “a part of every adolescent Roman male’s education (cf. Cic. pro Cael. 48f.; Porph. ap. Hor. Sat. 1.2.31f.)” (N. M. Kay, Martial Book XI: a commentary, London: Duckworth, 1985, p. 167), and, given Victor’s inexperience, he might as well be adolescent in this respect. The Subura was a major mercantile area of Rome, where apprentices learned their trade.
[42] The translator’s “sodomite” has been replaced by “pedicator” as a far more precise rendition of pedico. “Sodomite” is not exactly wrong, but departs unnecessarily from the linguistic suggestion that the pedicated was a boy, strong enough that N. M. Kay, in his Martial Book XI: a Commentary (London: Duckworth, 1985) p. 247, translates it as “pederast.”
[43] The circumcised poet born in Jerusalem to whom the epigram is addressed is obviously a Jew, which is why his swearing by the oath of the Thunderer (Jupiter) is insincere and worthless. Circumcision, emphasised here, was seen as typifying the Jews’s self-regard as a chosen race set apart from others (Tacitus, The Histories V 5). Together with the refusal of religiously-observant Jews to take part in the everyday activities appreciated by the rest of the ancient world, it gave rise to a certain amount of antipathy amongst other peoples, but also hilarity (Philo of Alexandria, The Special Laws I 1). Is Martial saying he is especially upset it should be someone boy in Jerusalem who has sodomized his boy and, if so, does this mean it is because the hypocrisy involved, ie. that Martial knew Jews regarded sodomy as a terrible sin deserving stoning to death?
[44] No one knows what is meant by Anchialum. It has been the subject over the centuries of wild speculation not worth further mention here since none of it is of special Greek love interest.
[45] Dardanian means an inhabitant of Troy, founded by Dardanos. Martial is claiming that until Jupiter took the Trojan boy Ganymede off to Mount Olympos to be his catamite, he used to pedicate his wife Juno. No boy loves besides Ganymede were attributed to Jupiter.
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