M. Valerii Martialis Spectacvlorvm

This is the first full-scale edition of the surviving epigrams from the so-called Liber spectaculorum by Martial, a thematically unified collection celebrating highlights from games held under imperial sponsorship in Flavian Rome. The poems have been preserved in various combinations in six medieval florilegia, and are augmented by two from the Florilegium Gallicum that were first attributed to the collection in the sixteenth century. A general introduction addresses, in order: the practical difficulty of reconciling conflicting systems of numeration for a series of poems whose order and length are insecure; the transmission of the text; possible versions of an original title; the origins and purpose of the different headings to the individual epigrams; the scope and characteristics of the transmitted collection, viewed in terms of an ancient poetry-book; the identity of the 'Caesar' to whom the epigrams are addressed, and the implications of this identification for the circumstances of composition and 'publication' of the poems in the collection; the construction of the Flavian amphitheatre, celebrated in the first three poems; the role of spectacle in constructing the image of the Julio-Claudian predecessors to Martial's 'Caesar'; monuments and occasions as a theme in epigram; spectacle and imperial panegyric in Martial's auvre; the authorial persona, as revealed in this book; and the compendious treatment of the Liber spectaculorum in the Cornu copiae of Niccolo Perotti (1489), a milestone in the history of lexicography. Each epigram is accompanied by an apparatus criticus, an English translation, an introduction, and a detailed commentary discussing matters of linguistic, literary, and historical interest. To elucidate these tantalizingly allusive poems, a wide range of evidence is adduced from epigraphy and art as well as works of literature.