The over 1,500 epigrams of Martial are of the most bewildering variety. Romans
of every sort and condition appear in his pages, engaged in every conceivable activity. He was the ideal spectator, amiable, witty, at times tender and sentimental. His flattery of great persons can be forgiven; his scurrilous abuse (never, however, directed at persons under their own names), sometimes marked by the most graphic and imaginative obscenity, is usually amusing; and at his best Martial is unsurpassed for wit, elegance, and point. It is this last which has proved his most lasting contribution: the epigram before Martial was characterized by a high lapidary polish but seldom by the wit and satirical point which he gave it.
