Epigrams (Modern Library Classics)

This is the modern Loeb Shackleton-Bailey translation (along with verso page Latin, well-aligned with the English text). If you want to see the older Walter Ker translations simultaneously, you can get them for $0.99 digitally from Delphi Classics and keep them open on your reading device simultaneously, easily. The Ker translations are infamous for having put the dirty epigrams and poem into Italian, not English, but perhaps, frankly, this is just as well. Wow. Martial didn't hold back. When I see the Italian, I consider skipping over those, which was doubtless Ker's intention. All the Shackleton-Bailey translations are wonderful and don't hedge around points as Ker so often did. Both help with the Latin, assuming Latin study is why you are reading Martial, and this writer is excellent for Latin practice. He puts the sting of the joke at the end of the verse, typically --- but also at the end of lines within the verse, which explains to me Martial's extended noun-adjective phrases with several words often separating the noun and its modifier. The last word is the "ouch." Probably it's about metre, too, but that I haven't "gotten" yet.

I loved this book and had fun reading it with my teenage son. Having taken a few years of the language in school, the parallel Latin text was a wonderful addition for him. Good selections that describe a side of Roman life often overlooked. This would be great assigned reading in a history or Latin class (particularly middle or high school) as many of the selections are in the "roast" style, which was very entertaining for my son.

This is one of the three books of Martial's epigrams. It is a basic for anyone's Latin library. The Latin is difficult, unlike Caesar's, but worth the battle.

D.R. Shackleton Bailey brings us a fresh and vibrant prose translation of Martial's clever, humorous and bawdy Epigrams. Bailey's crowning achievement lies in his illuminating footnotes and in his clear-cut translation which reads like poetry when digested; for his prose rendition is still very rythmic, full of vigor and imagery. Now, Martial's poems tell us much of ordinary life in first century Rome and reveal also a bit of the obscene and the ridiculous. And even if his lines do at times wax a little profane, we may exonerate Martial if his testimony is true, when he proclaims "my page is wanton, but my life is clean." Overall, the Epigrams carry a satirical charm that is purely characteristic of Rome and extremely enticing to the Latin enthusiast.

Just going to show that there really were rude people 2000 years ago as there are now, the Roman poet Martial left us hundreds of biting epigrams that show a talented observation of Roman society.Martial's epigrams poke fun at many of the leading figures of his day, and were originally composed to recite aloud at his presentations. Much of what he wrote is either risque or outright obscene; Martial enjoyed exposing the adulterers and homosexuals of his day.Martial's humor ranges from apparent to subtle. One example of one of his epigrams would be:Hesterno fetere mero qui credit Acerram,/fallitur: in lucem semper Acerra bibit.(Anybody who thinks that Acerra reeks of yesterday's wine misses his guess. Acerra always drinks until sunrise.)And of course there is the epigram which is familiar to thousands of American high-school Latin students:"Thais habet nigros, niveos Laecania dentes./quae ratio est? emptos haec habet, illa suos."{Thais' teeth are black, Laecania's snow-white. The reason? The one has those she has bought, the other her own.)This edition, translated by D.R. Shackleton Bailey, and published by Loeb Classical Library, is the one worth having. The translation is accurate and Bailey's footnotes are always handily at the bottom of the page to clear up details of Latin usage (Martial from time to time uses puns which don't translate).The other reviewer here is right. If Cicero and Virgil are too stuffy for you, Martial provides quite the incentive for dilligently pursuing Latin. I'm certainly happy I took advantage of high school for it.

I received this in the mail recently and have been enraptured. The quality of the binding and the paper was the first thing I noticed. On opening the book, I was pleased to see a good quality, readable typeface, and a continuity in the ink that promised an unobstructed read. Thos familiar with the subject matter will know the Martial is a brilliant satirist and epigrammatist, and provides the modern reader not only a histerical historical view, but a potent and contemporary snapshot of the foibles of human folly.

Firstly, let me say that I am not an expert in Latin, though I am certaintly able to read it, understand it, and also know a little about its literary techniques. One of the most grating errors I have found in this translation is the continual rhyming of its lines. Latin, being a language of often mutable word ending but even more amorphous word order, had no need to rhyme its verse, and therefore any translation, in English, that insists on rhyming for any purpose usually obfuscates the original meaning so much that it is, in of itself, a whole different poem.I have also seen the ommission of many names in the work, which I find unappealing. While I do enjoy that it is able to combine the original latin with the english translation, I would recommend searching for a similar book with a better translator: it will make the epigrams far more enjoyable.

Good translation although the complete text in Latin and English are side by side so its a much quicker read than I expected (as I cant read Latin.)

Excellent translation, footnotes and Introduction with Latin and English translation side by side - I highly recommend this to any Classics student.

very pleased

Please don't buy this translation. There is nothing inherently unsatisfactory about the transliteration of martial but what struck me as appalling was that the author has chosen to leave out many of martial's most illuminating and memorable epigrams. I mad ehte mistake of buying this prudish copy and it is a major disservice.