Mendicancy and Competition in Martial 12.32 and Catullus 23

Maria S. Marsilio (St. Joseph's University)

Critics have long recognized the importance of Catullus and the Neoterics as literary models for Martial, who claims to write in the tradition of Catullus. In treating the extreme poverty of Vacerra as deserving of mockery and invective Martial 12.32 draws some of its details from Catullus 23, which ironically highlights the advantages of Furius’ impoverished condition. While the verbal correspondences between these two poems have been recognized, important thematic parallels have not been explored. This paper will argue that Catullus 23 and Martial 12.32 criticize rivals for severe poverty that reduces them to mendicancy and prevents mutually satisfying, reciprocal exchange of material and creative gifts. While confessing their own personal paupertas in several other poems (a persona adopted by earlier poets Hesiod, Theognis, Aristophanes, Hipponax, and Callimachus) Catullus and Martial produce poetry that is playful, witty and finely crafted, with which they claim superiority over their rivals.

Catullus’ Furius and Martial’s Vacerra similarly lack a single slave (23.1, 12.32.3-5) and fire (23.2, 12.32.14), are dehydrated in body (23.12-17, 12.32.7) from cold and hunger (23.14, 12.32.7), and are surrounded by undignified relatives (Furius by his father and stepmother, 23.3-6; and Vacerra by his wife, mother, and sister, 12.32.4-6). But where Catullus refers to Furius’ begging only in Furius’ frequent appeal to Catullus for a loan (et sestertia quae soles precari/centum desine, 26-27), the theme of beggary is more pervasive in Martial’s poem on Vacerra, revealing a harsher view of urban poverty. Especially provocative is Martial’s comparison of Vacerra to Irus (Irus tuorum temporum, 9). Irus’ ravenous belly and unceasing eating and drinking (Odyssey 18.2-3) make an ironic comparison with Vacerra’s pallor and dehydration from cold and hunger (12.32.7-9). The vagabond Irus and the impoverished Vacerra both faced justified eviction: Irus from Odysseus’ palace and Vacerra from his urban apartment. Martial’s reference to Irus also exploits themes of rivalry and competition in Epigram 12.32. The weak Irus, messenger of Penelope’s suitors, insulted and challenged Odysseus (disguised as an old beggar) to a boxing competition. Odysseus defeated Irus with one blow and dragged him out of his palace. Indeed, Watson (2004) also appears to notice the important themes of rivalry and competition in Martial 12.32. She argues that Vacerra and his family are characterized as poor Celtic immigrants living in Rome. Martial’s juxtaposition of Epigram 12.32 and Epigram 12.31, which describes Martial’s idyllic retirement in his Spanish homeland, reflects the “gleeful sense of superiority entertained by a successful one-time Celtiberian immigrant to Rome, as he contemplates with smug self- satisfaction those who have met with disaster in the metropolis where he himself had so conspicuously made his mark.” (Watson 2004, 323).

Martial’s satisfaction has even greater resonance when we consider Epigram 8.69, which provides a different criticism of Vacerra. Here, Martial accuses Vacerra of praising only older poets in a desire to reject his worthy and innovative contemporaries, such as Martial himself. Vacerra’s admiration for “only the ancients” (veteres…solos, 8.69.1) and praise of only “dead poets” (mortuos poetas, 8.69.2) are likely satirized in 12.32, where Martial consistently links Vacerra with family and possessions that are old, squalid, and no longer valuable or useful. Martial, then, asserts his literary merits and ultimate success over Vacerra, who denigrates Martial’s poetry in favor of earlier poets and whose own failures reduce him to mendicancy. In a similar manner, Catullus established Furius’ lack of literary sophistication in another poem (16), where Catullus accused him of misinterpreting the verses of his “kiss” poems literally and of failing to comprehend the wit and refinement of his poetry. Catullus’ refusal of Furius’ repeated and urgent appeals for a loan (23.26-27) demonstrate his own superiority over his rival. I conclude that Catullus and Martial make Furius and Vacerra targets of sardonic mockery for their financial destitution and degrading beggary as well as for their lack of literary taste. Both poets assert their ultimate success over their envious rivals.

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