The Epigrams
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
From the bustling taverns and gladiatorial arenas of first-century Rome, the poet Martial unleashed a collection of razor-sharp verses that cut to the heart of human folly, vanity, and desire — The Epigrams stands as one of antiquity's most vivid and unsparing portraits of urban life. Spanning fourteen books and over fifteen hundred poems, this monumental work chronicles the full social spectrum of imperial Rome, skewering pompous patrons, hypocritical moralists, social climbers, and charlatans with wit as deadly as any gladius, while also tenderly immortalising friendships, loves, and the small joys of everyday existence. Martial's genius lies in his mastery of compression and irony — each epigram is a perfectly constructed ambush, luring the reader into apparent simplicity before delivering a devastating final twist. As a literary form, the epigram owes much of its enduring DNA to Martial, whose influence can be traced through Shakespeare, Swift, and Oscar Wilde. This Penguin Classics edition makes one of Latin literature's most bracingly modern voices accessible to contemporary readers, and one is left wondering: has human nature truly changed at all since Martial's Rome?
Author: Martial
Format: Paperback
Genre: Classic fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
From the bustling taverns and gladiatorial arenas of first-century Rome, the poet Martial unleashed a collection of razor-sharp verses that cut to the heart of human folly, vanity, and desire — The Epigrams stands as one of antiquity's most vivid and unsparing portraits of urban life. Spanning fourteen books and over fifteen hundred poems, this monumental work chronicles the full social spectrum of imperial Rome, skewering pompous patrons, hypocritical moralists, social climbers, and charlatans with wit as deadly as any gladius, while also tenderly immortalising friendships, loves, and the small joys of everyday existence. Martial's genius lies in his mastery of compression and irony — each epigram is a perfectly constructed ambush, luring the reader into apparent simplicity before delivering a devastating final twist. As a literary form, the epigram owes much of its enduring DNA to Martial, whose influence can be traced through Shakespeare, Swift, and Oscar Wilde. This Penguin Classics edition makes one of Latin literature's most bracingly modern voices accessible to contemporary readers, and one is left wondering: has human nature truly changed at all since Martial's Rome?