Social Commentaries
Book II, Epigram 18 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
I fish for your invitation to dinner; I am ashamed, alas! yet, Maximus, I fish for it; you fish for another man's; so now we are a pair. In the morning I attend your levee; you, they tell me, have gone before to another levee; so now we are a pair. I in person am your attendant, and the escort of a haughty lord; you are escort of another; so now we are a pair. To be a slave is enough; I won't any longer be a slave's slave. He who is a lord, Maximus, should not have his own lord.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book II, Epigram 18 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/472/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book II, Epigram 18 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/472/.
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