Social Commentaries
Book I, Epigram 101 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
Once the trusty copyist of my poems, his hand a treasure to his master and to the Caesars known, Demetrius in his fresh prime has left behind him years yet young: a fourth summer had been added to three lustres. Yet, that he should not go down to the shades of Styx a slave, when a cursed contagion held him fevered in its toils — to this I took heed, and to his sickness resigned all a master's rights: worthy was he by my gift to have seen health once more! He felt with failing strength the boon and called me "patron," now that he was passing down, a free man, to the nether wave.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book I, Epigram 101 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/437/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book I, Epigram 101 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/437/.
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