Lindsay Watson is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Sydney and the author of Arae: The Curse Poetry of Antiquity (1991). Patricia Watson is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Sydney and author of Ancient Stepmothers: Myth, Misogyny and Reality (1995).

'The commentary is meticulous, clear in its style and organization and exceptionally well informed … we could not hope for a better account of martial in his cultural, historical and literary context. As martial approaches his bimillenium, uninhibited once more, Watson & Watson will be the standard introduction.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction; Select epigrams; 1. Martial and poetry; 2. Poet and patron; 3. Martial and the city of Rome; 4. Women; 5. Sexual mores; 6. Satirical epigrams; 7. Epideictic epigrams; 8. Funerary epigrams; Commentary; Bibliography; Indexes.

Lindsay Watson is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Sydney and the author of Arae: The Curse Poetry of Antiquity (1991). Patricia Watson is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Sydney and author of Ancient Stepmothers: Myth, Misogyny and Reality (1995).

'The commentary is meticulous, clear in its style and organization and exceptionally well informed … we could not hope for a better account of martial in his cultural, historical and literary context. As martial approaches his bimillenium, uninhibited once more, Watson & Watson will be the standard introduction.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction; Select epigrams; 1. Martial and poetry; 2. Poet and patron; 3. Martial and the city of Rome; 4. Women; 5. Sexual mores; 6. Satirical epigrams; 7. Epideictic epigrams; 8. Funerary epigrams; Commentary; Bibliography; Indexes.