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Martial Author

Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial) (ca. 40 AD – ca. 103 AD) was a Roman poet born in what is now Spain, and best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems he satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances. He wrote over 1,500 epigrams, of which over 1,200 are in elegiac couplets. Martial is regarded as the creator of the modern epigram.