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‘Dear Martial’ – what a strange coincidence that Martial’s soul-mate, who leads the life he himself dreams of living, is called ‘Julius Martial’. In our selection we meet him first at 1.107, playfully teasing the poet that he ought to write “something big; you’re such a slacker”; at the start of book 3, JMa’s is ‘a name that’s constantly on my lips’ (3.5), and the welcome at his lovely suburban villa on the Janiculan Hill 4.64 is so warm, ‘you will think the place is yours’.

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His books are famous around the world, but their author struggles to get by – two themes that quickly become familiar to any reader. Martial has an eye for fabric. He habitually ranks himself and judges others by the price and quality of their clothing and accessories (e.g. 2.29, 2.57), a quick index in the face-to-face street life of the crammed metropolis.

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An epigram is a short poem, most often of two or four lines. Its typical metre is the elegiac couplet, which is also the metre of Roman love poetry (elegy) and the hallmark of Ovid. In antiquity it was a distinctively Greek literary form: Roman writers were never comfortable in it as they were in other imported genres, such as epic and elegy. When they dabbled in epigram they often used Greek to do so. Martial’s decision to write books of Latin epigrams, and nothing else, is thus a very significant departure.

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Who is ‘Martial’? "Up to this point, Madam, this little book has been written for you. You want to know for whom the bits further in are written? For me." (3.68) Marcus Valerius Martialis was born some time around AD 40 (we know his birthday, 1st March, but not the year) at Bilbilis in Hispania Tarraconensis, a province of oil- and wine-rich Roman Spain.

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For four centuries Britain was an integral part of the Roman Empire, a political system stretching from Turkey to Portugal and from the Red Sea to the Tyne and beyond. Britain's involvement with Rome started long before its Conquest, and it continued to be a part of the Roman world for some time after the final break with Roman rule. But how much do you know about this important period of British history?

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This sequence of photos roughly outlines the progress of the Roman takeover of Greece, from the first beginnings in Illyris (modern Albania) in 230 BCE to the infamous “destruction” of Corinth in 146 BCE. The critical figures of this swift takeover were two Macedonian kings, Philip V and Perseus, who were determined to resist Roman aggression. Many famous generals of the middle Roman Republic were involved with the Greek states as generals and diplomats, but the most critical of them was Titus Quinctius Flamininus. And then off in the wings, especially when he was fighting the Romans in Italy itself and monopolizing their resources, was Hannibal, the Carthaginian general. But Carthage too was destroyed in 146 by the Romans. Their grip on the Mediterranean was secure.



• Phoenice

   

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  This wealthy Greek town was the first to fall to Illyrian expansion, in 230 BCE. The Romans became concerned and sent an army across the Adriatic to quell the Illyrians. Thus began the Roman takeover of Greece.

• Philip V

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Philip-V.jpg

  The chief power on the Greek mainland was the kingdom of Macedon, ruled by Philip V. A vigorous young king, he was determined to drive the Romans from Greek soil. The clash of the superpowers became inevitable.

• Hannibal

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Hannibal-2.jpg

  At the same time as fighting Philip in Greece, the Romans were engaged in Italy itself with the Carthaginian general, Hannibal. When Philip and Hannibal entered into a treaty, the purpose of which was the defeat of Rome, the Romans became truly alarmed.

• Flamininus

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Flamininus.jpg

  The Second Macedonian War was managed for Rome by the young consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus. A competent general and a ruthless diplomat, he soon brought Philip V to his knees.

• The Roman Senate

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/The-Roman-Senate.jpg

  After the defeat of Philip V in the First and Second Macedonian wars (214-205, 200-197), Macedon was a shadow of its former self. The Greek states began to turn instead to the Roman Senate for advice and help. In this way Rome retained power in Greece even when it had no army there.

• Perseus Surrenders to Aemilius Paullus

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Perseus-Surrenders-to-Aemilius-Paullus.jpg

  Philip V died in 179 and was succeeded by his son Perseus, the last king of Macedon. The Romans bullied him into war, and after his defeat he was imprisoned in Italy and what remained of Macedon was divided into four republics.

• The Destruction of Corinth

   

  http://blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/The-Destruction-of-Corinth.jpg

  Twenty-two years after the final defeat of Macedon in 168, it was the turn of Greece itself. The Roman takeover was completed by the destruction of Corinth, symbol of Greek resistance.

Robin Waterfield is an independent scholar, living in southern Greece. In addition to more than twenty-five translations of works of Greek literature, he is the author of numerous books, including Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great’s Empire, and most recently, Taken at the Flood: The Roman Conquest of Greece.

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Image credits: 1. Phoenice, courtesy of Robin Waterfield. 2. Philip V. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. 3. Hannibal by Sébastien Slodtz (French, 1655–1726). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. 4. Quinctius Flamininus by PHGCOM. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. 5. Cicero Denounces Catiline by Cesare Maccari. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. 6. König Perseus vor Aemilius Paulus by Jean-François-Pierre Peyron. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. 7. Le Dernier Jour de Corinthe by Tony Robert-Fleury. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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By J. C. McKeown

The National September 11 Memorial Museum will be opened in a few weeks. On the otherwise starkly bare wall at the entrance is a 60-foot-long inscription in 15-inch letters made from steel salvaged from the twin towers: NO DAY SHALL ERASE YOU FROM THE MEMORY OF TIME. This noble sentiment is a quotation from Virgil’s Aeneid, one of mankind’s highest literary achievements, but its appropriateness has been questioned. In the context of the Aeneid, Virgil is commemorating a homosexual pair of warriors killed while making a bloody surprise attack on their sleeping enemies’ camp. Three years ago, an article in the New York Times suggested that “anyone troubling to take even a cursory glance at the quotation’s context will find the choice offers neither instruction nor solace.” But the museum was unmoved by such objections, and its director has recently defended the choice, asserting, perhaps rather cryptically, that the quotation characterizes the “museum’s overall commemorative context.”

It is unfortunate that this controversy has arisen, especially since so few people nowadays know about the context of the quote in the Aeneid. Those who lost family members or friends in the attacks should not have their thoughts and feelings distracted in this way. The sentiments expressed on national monuments aim to be strongly and unambiguously assertive of a view held by the whole community, but perhaps they are inherently vulnerable to controversial interpretations. Ideally, of course, such quotations should resonate more deeply than the meaning of the actual words, but would it not be best to accept the obviously sincere intentions of the museum’s committee and let the matter drop?

Otherwise, where will it end? Should we hesitate about using dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”), a line by Horace, Virgil’s contemporary, found so often on war memorials? In the 1910s, it was inscribed at Arlington and at Sandhurst, the British military academy, and was even translated into classical Greek (mirabile dictu!) on a memorial honoring the dead in the First Balkan War.

Before the decade was out, however, in the most celebrated of all World War I poems, Wilfred Owen had described Horace’s line as “the old lie.” Horace’s own authority to voice such ideals may be questioned. He was writing a poem of national significance–it is one of his “Roman Odes”–but the very next line, “death pursues even the man who runs away,” might make us recall a different poem in which Horace rather flippantly admits that he had thrown away his shield and fled at the Battle of Philippi. These considerations may give us pause for thought, but the validity of dulce et decorum in a national context is not diminished.

Carpe diem is perhaps the most ubiquitous of all Latin tags, but few people are aware of its original use: Horace is trying to persuade a girl to sleep with him. In another quote from the same book of Odes, Horace assures us that a person who is integer vitae scelerisque purus (“He who lives an unblemished life and is not tainted with crime”) is under divine protection, but the poem is essentially trivial, for Horace’s guardian deity turns out to be Cupid, who keeps wolves at bay while he sings in the woods about his mistress; even so, the poem was sung for centuries at Swedish funerals.

The fundamental democratic principles of equality and unity encapsulated so precisely in e pluribus unum are surely not diminished by the possibility that it was inspired by a phrase from an inconsequential poem attributed to Virgil: color est e pluribus unus (“from being several, the color is one”), in a description of an old peasant grinding the various ingredients together to make a vegetable pâté for his breakfast.

We have difficulties enough with the nuances of our own language. How many of those who wear T-shirts emblazoned with The Road Not Taken regard Frost’s best known poem not so much as a declaration of their free spirit, but rather as “that cunning nugget of nihilism disguised as an anthem for nonconformity” (New Yorker, 10 February 2014)?

Even Virgil himself has been charged with quoting inappropriately. When Aeneas stammers to Dido’s ghost in the Underworld, invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi (“unwillingly, O queen, I left your shore”), it is an undoubted echo of Catullus’s translation of an elegant Hellenistic court poem, in which a lock of Queen Berenice’s hair laments that it is now a constellation, no longer with the queen: invita, o regina, tuo de vertice cessi (“unwillingly, O queen, I left your head”). To quote the standard commentary on Virgil’s line: “modern susceptibilities are pained by Virgil’s presumed indifference to the incongruity so produced.”

There is classical precedent for changing a memorial inscription. After the Greek victory over the Persians at Plataea in 479 BC, the Greek commander set up an inscription at Delphi: “Pausanias, leader of the Greeks, when he destroyed the army of the Persians, dedicated this memorial to Apollo.” He was ordered to remove it, and told he could put it up again when he had defeated the Persians single-handedly. Might that be the best solution to all this controversy? The task of re-writing the inscription might be given to Billy Collins, who was Poet Laureate at the time of the attacks. He would be sure to resist those who want to:

“tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.”

J. C. McKeown is Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, co-editor of the Oxford Anthology of Roman Literature, and author of A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities, A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities, and Classical Latin: An Introductory Course.

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BOOK OF THE DAY-June

Plan in advance for father’s day! The month of June is dedicated to books for dads and boys…don’t worry, a few dads & daughter books thrown in too! Good list for reluctant readers as well as summer vacation. Enjoy!

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BOOK OF THE DAY-May

In celebration of Mother’s day, moms, women and daughters, recommendations span ages and areas of interest. Great for summer vacation reading too!

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I guess there's an alternate universe in my garage.  It's full of giant strawberries and grapes, and in this place, there is no time.  I step out here to do a little painting and the next thing I know, it's midnight!  For a little while, I was joined by husband, Smitty, and the youngest kidlet (who are now asleep).

That's Smitty on bass and Lindy (the pirate) on tennis racket.

I'm glad the weekend is here because the 4th panel will require some time - lots of grape leaves and clusters of grapes and figures for which I have not mixed any paint colors yet.  I knew the people would slow me down - as an illustrator, I've always been able to take liberties with the way I depict subjects like people.  But, I don't want to go too cartoony for the mural - the composition is already rooted in fantasy, and I'd like it to have a foot in reality.

Study - some adjustments to be made still, but you get the idea

Soooooo, I've been working on some small studies beforeI tackle the certain characters or scenarios.  This evening, I spent time on the Dionysus character - the Greek god of wine and winemaking (or Bacchus, if you happen to be Roman).  He's the guy up in the trellis among the grapes (in case you were wondering).  I haven't done a lot of figurative painting in a looooong time and I need to brush-up on my color mixing when it comes to flesh tones, highlights, and shadows.

Thanks to the person who invented this - I have now made peace with acrylic paints.

I also wanted to try my Masterson Sta-Wet palette that I got for when I'm working on detail work and don't need to mix containerfuls of paint.  One of the things that has always driven me nuts about acrylic paint is how quickly it dries and how I constantly seem to be remixing paint (I used oils in college - they stay wet forever).  Well, so far the verdict is AWESOME.  I never once had to remix a color because it had dried to uselessness in the (apparently) many hours I worked on this.

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16. How To Write Short and BIG, BIG, BIG

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By: Jason Boog, on 7/20/2007
Blog: ThePublishingSpot (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Flash Fiction, twitter, twitterlit, Jenny Holzer, Add a tag

Think you write a punchy sentence? Imagine your next sentence projected in gigantic letters on the side of the New York Public Library.

That's the kind of writing that artist Jenny Holzer does, stark, gigantic, but brief manifestos that she projects on buildings and walls. Now, Jenny Holzer allegedly has a page on the brief blog website, Twitter. It's crazy to think about this BIG LETTER artist working on the smallest screen.

But we can learn from her example (or alleged example, in this case), learning how to polish our even our shortest posts into glittering, deadly sentences. In a world crowded with short blog posts and the blink-of-an-eye news headlines, more writers are cutting their teeth on the fine art of Flash fiction--short short stories that hardly break a thousand words apiece.

Go check out these flash fiction repositories if you want some more quick reading: Smith Magazine's six word memoirs, quick science fiction in 365 Tomorrows, and short literary pieces at 400 Words. And don't forget the good folks at TwitterLit, bringing books to Twitter.

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