Social Commentaries
Book V, Epigram 13 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
I am, I confess, and I have always been poor, Callistratus, yet no obscure or ill-famed knight am I; yet am I read through all the world by many, and they say of me "'Tis he!", and what death has given to few this has life given to me. But your roof rests on a hundred columns, and }rour money-chest keeps close a freedman's wealth, and the broad tillage of Nile's Syene serves you as lord, and Gallic Parma shears for you unnumbered flocks. Such are we — you and I; but what I am you cannot be: what you are that anyone of the people can be.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book V, Epigram 13 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/732/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book V, Epigram 13 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/732/.
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