SOURCE: "Martial and Formal Literary Criticism," Classical Philology, Vol. XV, No. 4, October, 1920, pp. 340-52.

In this essay, Preston assesses Martial's opinions—as expressed in the epigrams—of his artistic predecessors, and compares them to the more formal literary commentary offered by some of Martial's contemporaries.

What constitutes real literary criticism is always debatable, in the case of Martial as much perhaps as anywhere. Martial does not give us the masses of criticism that we find in Horace, nor are his critical ideas systematized as Horace's are. No doubt this is what is meant by Mr. H. E. Butler¹ when he says in his essay on Martial, "He gives us practically no literary criticism." But Martial, at first sight not a bookish poet, has a surprising amount of informal literary comment and reflection. Along certain lines he imitated largely, and imitation is at least the softer side of criticism...