Roman poet of the
silver age, born in the
province of
Spain between A.D. 38 and 41. He wrote 14 books of
epigrams; the first, the
liber spectaculorum, or
Show-book, published in A.D. 96, during the final year of the reign of
Domitian, describes his impressions of
gladiatorial combat. His
wit is typically Roman, i.e. cold and cruel:
Daedalus, when you were mauled by that Lucanian bear,
Didn't you wish then that you had your wings?
-Epigrammata I.VIII
The last two books, 13 and 14, consist of short two-liners meant as snipets to be used as models for dedications at the Saturnalia (kind of like a poetic code library). The rest contains poems on a wide variety of topics, mostly obscene or pornographic in nature, but all masterful satire. Most of our sources for ancient pornography and invective, as well as sexual positions , are found here.
There's very little about Martial you can hate; he drinks, fucks around, and hates lawyers. His style is extremely varied, ranging from well-crafted subtelty to blatant extravagance.