Social Commentaries
Book XII, Epigram 66 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
A town house was bought by you for twice fifty tliousand sesterces, and you long to sell it even for a scantier sum. But you seek to seduce a purchaser with crafty art, Amoenus; and a cottage lies disguised pretentiously in riches. Couches gleam bright, inlaid with peerless tortoiseshell, and there are pieces, choice and weighty, of Moorish citrus-wood; an elaborate sideboard is loaded with silver and gold plate; young slaves are standing there whom I would wish my masters! Then you loudly prate of two hundred thousand sesterces, and say the place is not worth less. Furnished as it is, Amoenus, you are selling your town house cheap.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book XII, Epigram 66 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/1418/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book XII, Epigram 66 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/1418/.
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