Laudabo digne non satis tamen Baias: Martial’s Epigrammatic Campania

Abstract

This chapter analyses the diversity of themes which Martial ‘epigrammatizes’ in his portrayal of Baiae and Campania, giving prominence to epigrams on wine, its use and abuse (1.18), and scandalous, tragic, and miraculous narratives, dramatized, occasionally, with literary or historical allusion and intertext. As he praises or mocks the country estates surrounding Baiae, Martial explores contemporary issues and compliments personal friends. A cycle of seven poems devoted to Silius and his Punica begins by comparing their disparate genres, inviting the poet-politician to surrender himself to the cultural temptations of Baiae, in the manner of his own Hannibal seduced by the music and sympotic delights of Capua (4.14). The wit, scope, and density of Martial’s literary allusions within this cycle extends beyond Silius himself to his cult of Virgil’s tomb in a witty cluster of epigrams from Book 11 where the theme of poetic emulation takes on a priapic slant.