Martial

The Roman poet Marcus Valerius Martialis is best known known for his epigrams, which became popular and influential in European poetry over a millennium after his death. In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. The enduring literary interest of Martial's epigrams arises as much from their literary quality as from the colorful references to human life that they contain. Martial's epigrams bring to life the spectacle and brutality of daily life in imperial Rome, with which he was intimately connected. Martial wrote a total of 1,561 epigrams, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets. His work has received significant scholarly attention in the 21st century.