• Martial's epigrams target every level of Roman society, from slave to aristocrat. This newly translated selection is as punchy and close to the knuckle as the originals.
• One of only two substantial modern translations since 1972, and the first by a classicist. Witty and accurate prose translations convey incidental detail and the poet's consummate comic timing.
• The first translation to bring out the literariness of Martial, to show how his books and poems interconnect. The selection illustrates the range and diversity of Martial's style and topics.
• Includes facing Latin text.
• The Introduction considers Martial's life and times, his importance for the genre, and the thematic structure of the original books.
• Notes identify Martial's literary and mythic allusions, explain real-world contexts, and show the interaction of different books and poems.

  
'If you're one of those terribly serious readers, now is a good time to leave.'

The poet we call Martial, Marcus Valerius Martialis, lived by his wits in first-century Rome. Pounding the mean streets of the Empire's capital, he takes apart the pretensions, addictions, and cruelties of its inhabitants with perfect comic timing and killer punchlines. Social climbers and sex-offenders, rogue traders and two-faced preachers - all are subject to his forensic annihilations and often foul-mouthed verses. Packed with incident and detail, Martial's epigrams bring Rome vividly to life in all its variety; biting satire rubs alongside tender friendship, lust for life beside sorrow for loss. Gossipy, clever, and above all entertaining, they express amusement as much as indignation at the vices they expose. 

This selection brings Martial to a twenty-first century readership in a prose translation that pulls no punches and presents him in all his moods. It establishes his originality as a literary author, and the significance of his achievement as the poet who conquered epigram for Rome.