SOURCE: "Women, according to Martial," The Classical Bulletin, Vol. 48, No. 2, December, 1971, pp. 21-5.

In this essay, Chaney briefly surveys Martial's depiction of women—both those he admires and those whose features, vanity, or lack of virtue he disparages.

Martial frequently writes of women as types but his poems also deal with at least sixty-five women who are named and rather clearly described. Life itself is the theme of Martial, the life of the decadent Empire, and though he often writes in jest, he makes it quite clear in his preface that he respects all persons, even the lowest in status and character. "My page," says he, "smacks of humanity."

Women naturally were part of Martial's material. His subject matter was scandals, humors, fashions, follies, hypocrisies, Flavian types and eccentrics. He attained vividness by realistic detail. As Moses Hadas asserts, "… his total picture adds up to an indictment of...