Appendix the Dating of Martial's Epigrams And

APPENDIX

THE DATING OF MARTIAL’S EPIGRAMS AND STATIUS’ SILVAE

Martial’s Epigrams

Recent research has partly corrected the datings provided by L. Friedlander 1886: 1.50-67 (and in his wake by G. Wissowa in L. Friedlander 1919-23: 4.290-96). The best discussions are now by Citroni: 1975: ix-xxi on Books 1 and 2, 1988: 11-12 on the Xenia and Apophoreta, and 1989: 214-25 on the other books. I here give a summary of the publication dates for each book, accepting Citroni’s arguments unless otherwise noted.

Spect.: 80. 13: the Xenia, at the Saturnalia (i.e. in December) of 83 or 84'. 14: the Apophoreta, at the Saturnalia of 84 or 85, one year after the Xenia. 1: around 85-86*2; 1.1, 1.2, and probably \.ep., but hardly anything else, belong to a second edition in codex form, published not much earlier than 95 (cf. Citroni 1975: xix- xxi, 3-22)3.

The terminus post quem is Domitian's assumption of the title Germanicus (13.4), which fell in the second half of 83; see A. Martin 1987a, 1987b: 7-10, and 1988, correcting Buttrey 1980: 52-56. The arguments of Pitcher 1985 (and others) for a later date were rightly rejected by Citroni 1988: 11, n. 13 = 1996: 19-20, n. 14 and Leary 1996: 9-13. 2 The termini post quem are Domitian's assumption of the censorship (1.4.7), which fell in 85, probably in April (see Buttrey 1975), and his first expedition against the Dacians (1.22.6), which Citroni (1975: x-xiii) dates to the winter of 85- 86; because many scholars date it to 85 (e.g. Syme 1936: 168-70, Halfmann 1986: 182-83, Strobel 1989: 35-51, B.W. Jones 1992: 138-39), it is more prudent to leave the t.p.q. at 85. 3 The t.p.q is the construction of the Forum Transitorium, mentioned by Martial at 1.2.8. In the archaeological literature (e.g. von Blanckenhagen 1940: 11, D’Ambra 442 APPENDIX

2: soon after Book 1. 3: before mid-88 (Citroni 1987 attempts to date more pre cisely to autumn 87. 4: at the Saturnalia of 88 (cf. p. 110). 5: at the Saturnalia of 89 (cf. also Canobbio 1993) 6: between Books 5 and 7, perhaps at the Saturnalia of 90 or 91*4. 7: at the Saturnalia of 92. 8: at the Saturnalia of 93, rather than early in 94; see p. 130 with n. 128. 9: after May 94, probably at the end of 94 or the beginning of 95. 10: a first edition appeared at the Saturnalia of 95, a second in 98; the edition we have is the second, which retained many poems from the first (cf. 10.2). 11: at the Saturnalia of 96. An anthology from Books 10 and 11 was offered to Nerva (12.4 [5]), before the death of Parthenius, if 12.11 belonged to it (cf. p. 438 with n. 195). 12: at the Saturnalia of 101 (cf. p. 115).

The individual poems will normally have been written between the publication date of the book in which they occur and the publication date of the proceeding book. Thus, to limit myself to books which contain poems parallel to compositions in Statius’ Silvae, Book 6 contains poems from 90 or from both 90 and 91, Book 7 poems from 92 or from both 91 and 92, Book 8 poems from 93, Book 9 poems roughly from 94, but perhaps also from the beginning of 95.

1993: 4; cf. Darwall-Smith 1996: 121, n. 54), this is sometimes dated to 85-86, but that dating is based on the passage of Martial, in ignorance of the second edition. Instead, the dating of the passage of Martial, and thus of the second edition, should be based on the dating of the forum, which is not elsewhere mentioned before 95 (Stat. Silv. 4.1.14-15); cf. Mart. 10.28.6 (from 97; see p. 354, n. 102) and 10.51.12 (from 95 or 96; see p. 68 with n. 98). 4 Perhaps rather 91: illness (6.43, 47, 58, 70, 86) may have been the cause for skipping a year.