Social Commentaries

Book VII, Epigram 31 (Ker)

by Martial c. 40–c. 104

Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)

Social Commentaries

Birds of the cackling farmyard, and eggs of mother hens, and Chian figs yellow from insufficient heat, and the young offspring of the bleating she-goat, and olives unable now to stand the cold, and cabbages whitened by chill hoar frosts — do you believe these were sent you from my country-place? Oh, how carefully wrong, Regulus, you are! My small fields bear nothing but me. Whatever your Umbrian bailiff, or tenant sends you, or your country-house marked by the third milestone, or your lands in Etruria or at Tusculum, this for me is produced all over the Subura.

This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.

MLA

Martial. “Book VII, Epigram 31 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/921/.

Chicago

Martial. “Book VII, Epigram 31 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/921/.

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