Social Commentaries
Book IV, Epigram 86 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
If you would be approved by Attic ears, I exhort and warn you, little book, to please the cultured Apollinaris. No man is more precise and scholarly than he, at the same time no man more fair and kindly. If he shall hold you in his heart, if on his lips, you will neither fear the loud sneers of envy nor supply dolorous wrappers for mackerel. If he shall condemn you, you must fly at once to the drawers of the salt-fish sellers, fit only to have your back ploughed by boys' pens!
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book IV, Epigram 86 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/716/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book IV, Epigram 86 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/716/.
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