Social Commentaries
Book VII, Epigram 88 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
Fair Vienna is said, if report speak true, to. hold my little books among her darling possessions. Every old sire and youth and boy reads me there, and the chaste bride in the presence of her strait-laced husband. I prize this more than if those who drink of Nile straight from its fount were to hum my poems, than if my own Tagus were to glut me with Spanish gold, and Hybla fed, and Hymettus fed my bees. Of some account then am I, nor am I deceived by the tribute of a flattering tongue: now, I think, I will believe you, Lausus.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book VII, Epigram 88 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/974/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book VII, Epigram 88 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/974/.
Read this poem with the Codex →