Quote of the Day (Martial, on Gullibility)

“Friend Gullible, so often taken in,
Lacks our familiarity with sin.”—Martial (C. 40-c. 102 C.E.), the Spanish-born Roman poet, quoted in Garry Wills, “Rome’s Gossip Columnist: Introduction to Martial’s Epigrams” (also printed in The American Scholar, Spring 2008)

(Wills was known earlier in his career for his political commentary and histories, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg. His Ph.D. is in the classics, however, and over the last few years he has translated St. Augustine. While using his linguistic training, his work on Martial has taken him about as far away from Augustine as one can get. Much of Martial’s verse, far raunchier than the sample included here, can be found in the link above. The two-line structure enables the poet to lance his victims with compressed force. You really can see here, in a bent satiric way, the vast sexual corruption depicted in the HBO mini-series Rome.)