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Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

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MARTIAL AND JUVENAL<br />

Catullus, Ovid, <strong>and</strong> Pliny had made similar protestations: literature is one thing,<br />

life is quite another. 1 Martial has a lot to say about his chosen genre: there are<br />

prose prefaces to Books i, 2, 8, 9 <strong>and</strong> 12, <strong>and</strong> in addition many poems which<br />

belong to the area of literary apologetics. Epigram is thin — tenuis, whereas<br />

tragedy <strong>and</strong> epic are fat — pinguis. 2 Martial's poems are nugae, or ioci, slight<br />

occasional pieces, with few literary pretensions. The parallel with mime is<br />

frequently adduced. In the preface to Book 1, he mentions the games of Flora:<br />

epigrammata illis scribuntur qui solent spectare Florales<br />

epigram is written for those whose pleasure is in watching the plays at the Floralia.<br />

Similarly, at 9.28 he likens himself to the mimic actor Latinus, calling himself<br />

a member of the guild of mimi, careful nonetheless to justify his private ways<br />

<strong>and</strong> remain the servant of the emperor:<br />

sed nihil a nostro sumpsit mea uita theatro<br />

et sola tan turn scaenicus arte feror:<br />

nee poteram grams domino sine moribus esse:<br />

interius mentes inspirit ille deus.<br />

uos me laurigeri parasitum dicite Phoebi,<br />

Roma sui famulum dum sciat esse Iouis. (9.28.5—10)<br />

But my own life has not been influenced in any way by the theatre I present, <strong>and</strong> it is<br />

only through my art that I have affinities with mime. Nor could I have pleased the<br />

emperor my master if my morals were deficient: that god on earth sees into the<br />

recesses of our minds. You may call me a mimic, an inferior member of laurelled<br />

Phoebus' guild, as long as Rome is certain that I am a servant of her lord.<br />

Cautious <strong>and</strong> respectful, Martial has no doubts about his position in society.<br />

His mode is sal Romanus, Roman wit, more crude <strong>and</strong> abusive than its Greek<br />

counterpart, sal Atticus: he has licence, lasciuia, petulantia, the freedom to say<br />

whatever he wants, in a forthright brutal way — this he calls simplicitas, the<br />

deliberate employment of words which elsewhere would have been shocking<br />

<strong>and</strong> abrupt. But unlike Juvenal the satirist he never intends offence. He will<br />

titillate, he will shock: but that is merely part of a game •whose rules are known.<br />

He is so hedged around with defences, with excuses <strong>and</strong> apologies, that no<br />

exception can be taken.<br />

Finally, before a survey of some elements in Juvenal's satires, a word on<br />

Martial's humour, <strong>and</strong> the structure of his poems. Kruuse 3 makes the distinction<br />

between emotional, metaphoric humour, <strong>and</strong> intellectual, logical humour —<br />

1<br />

Catull. 16.5—

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