He unto whom thou art so partial,
Oh, reader! is the well-known Martial,
The Epigrammatist: while living,
Give him the fame thou wouldst be giving;
...
Most charming Martialis:
These things will give you solace:
Wealth that’s unmerited
Since it’s inherited;
...
Tomorrow you will live, you always cry;
In what fair country does this morrow lie,
That 'tis so mighty long ere it arrive?
Beyond the Indies does this morrow live?
...
I am a man with no ambitions
And few friends, wholly incapable
Of making a living, growing no
Younger, fugitive from some just doom.
...
Dear youth, too early lost, who now art laid
Beneath the turf in green Labicum's glade,
O'er thee no storied urn, no labored bust
I rear to crumble with the crumbling dust;
...
Post-Obits And The Poets
He unto whom thou art so partial,
Oh, reader! is the well-known Martial,
The Epigrammatist: while living,
Give him the fame thou wouldst be giving;
So shall he hear, and feel, and know it --
Post-obits rarely reach a poet.
Martial [Marcus Valerius Martialis (38/41? AD – 102/104? AD) was a Roman poet from Spain, considered the creator of the modern epigram. He wrote a total of 1,561 epigrams, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets, in twelve books published between AD 86 and 103. In them he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing.