Martial's Epigrams Book Two

by Oxford University Press

Overview

This edition provides an English translation of and detailed commentary on the second book of epigrams published by the Latin poet Marcus Valerius Martialis. The past ten years have seen a resurgence of interest in Martial's writings. But contemporary readers are in particular need of assistance when approaching these epigrams, and until now there has been no modern commentary dedicated to Book II. This new commentary carefully illuminates the allusions to people, places, things, and cultural practices of late first-century Rome that pervade Martial's poetry. It analyzes the epigrammatist's poems as literary creations, treating such topics as the structure of the individual poems and of the book as a whole, and the influence of earlier texts on Martial's language and themes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195155310
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/08/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	9.21(w) x 6.14(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1170L (what's this?)

About the Author

Craig A. Williams is Associate Professor of Classics at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and author of Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity.

Table of Contents

AbbreviationsIntroduction1. Martial's Life and Works2. Epigram before Martial3. Characteristics of Martial's Epigrams3.1. Themes3.2. Characters3.3. Formal Features: Point, Bipartite Structure, Length, and Meter3.4. Book Structure4. Nachleben and Reception5. Manuscript TraditionText, Translation, and CommentaryBibliographyIndices

Editorial Reviews

"An enjoyable book which engages the attention throughout, marks a useful advance in the study of Martial's works, and establishes a firm foundation from which to mount further investigations."—Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"The commentary is wonderfully focused and manageable.... Williams has created a very fine tool for perceiving and appreciating much of what Martial was doing in the poems.... Williams gives the reader just what is wanted and needed in a commentary."—New England Classical Journal

"What Williams has to offer is solid and reliable, the work of a skilled and diligent philologist, and for future studies of the genre his book will be indispensable."—Classical World

From the Publisher