Martial 2:8: the trouble with copyists

If odd things in these pages seem unclear, Reader, or don’t read like proper Latin, I’m not the one who goofed: your copyist screwed them up as he rushed to hit his line-count. But if you think he’s not to blame, but me… well, I shall note your lack of taste. ‘But they’re bad.’ Tell me something I don’t know! Yes they’re bad, but I don’t see you making better.

Martial's epigrams - a YouTube playlist

My video interview for OUP World's Classics, in suitably epigrammatic snippets:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY2GBapteg3nSigwX9KOzBb4YFYnGeYQ6

Some versions by Ian Dudley

The poet Ian M. Dudley has done a couple of versions of Martial using mine as a starting-point - I really like them:

http://www.iandudley.net/2015/10/a-fight-in-phone-box.html

My fourth OUP blog post

Abruptly cut off from his fix of boy-kisses:

http://blog.oup.com/2015/11/martial-epigrams-love/

Last week's OUP blog post

http://blog.oup.com/2015/11/martial-epigram-priorites-owc-reading-group/

The greatness of the city lies in its amenity; in how it facilitates civilised living. To the city eternal, the city of friendships, where ideas spark and life shines; Athens, Rome, Paris, and wherever you yourselves may be, then, now, and forever.

Martial 1.90

I never used to see you in company with men, Bassa; the gossip never gave you a lover. Instead you were always surrounded by women, a mob of them. They did everything for you; no man got close. And so, I admit, I took you for a Lucretia: but — shock, horror — Bassa, you’re a fucker. You dare set cunt to cunt, and your mega-clit fakes manliness. You've invented a crime against nature worthy of a Theban riddle: ‘There’s no man here — and yet, adultery.’

 

Martial 1.74

He was your bit on the side. Still, Paula, you were able to deny it. Now look: he’s your husband. Paula, can you still say no?

Say 'no he wasn't', say no to him... Pick one, or both.