Martial

3 units

Martial, the prolific first-century Latin poet, left behind fifteen books of poetry. Martial's epigrams can be witty, sincere, caustic, and often quite sexually explicit. In this course, we will read a selection of Martial's epigrams in Latin, and we will discuss various themes related to Martial's work, such as gender and sexuality, ancient conceptions of authorship and publishing, flattery, invective, and the many personae Martial adopts. We will also pay close attention to Martial's language and style, and we will discuss where Martial fits into the wider social and historical context.