Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis was born sometime around 40 A D at Bilbilis, a small town in the north-east of Spain.
Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus. Hoc est
Vivere bis vita posse priore frui.
Si post fata venit gloria, non propero.
Quisquis ubique habitat, Maxime, nusquam habitat.
Semper eris pauper, si pauper es, Aemiliane;
Dantur opes nulli nunc, nisi divitibus.
Nullos esse deos, inane caelum
Adfirmat Segius: probatque, quod se
Factum, dum negat haec, videt beatum.
The bee enclosed and through the amber shown
Seems buried in the juice which was his own.
I do not love thee, Sabidius, nor can I say why; this only I can say, I do not love thee.
The mode of death is sadder than death itself.
Invitas nullum nisi cum quo, Cotta, lavaris
et dant convivam balnea sola tibi
mirabar quare numquam me, Cotta, vocasses:
iam scio me nudum displicuisse tibi.
Laudant illa sed ista legunt.
Difficilis facilis iucundus acerbus es idem:
Nec tecum possum vivere nec sine te.
A man who lives everywhere lives nowhere.
You complain, friend Swift, of the length of my epigrams, but you yourself write nothing. Yours are shorter.
He who refuses nothing... will soon have nothing to refuse.
Accipe quam primum; brevis est occasio lucri.
Neither fear your death's day nor long for it.
Ardua res haec est opibus non tradere mores.
Non est, crede mihi, sapientis dicere ‘Vivam’:
Sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie.
Currant verba licet, manus est velocior illis; Nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus.