Category: Catullus

Raunchy, Rowdy, and Rotten: Provocative Poetry in Ancient Rome

May 17, 2025

—

by

Mark

in Catullus, Everything Latin, Greek history, Juvenal, Martial, Poetry, queer, Roman Empire, Roman Republic

Please be warned, the content of this post is (very) adult in nature. ”In around A.D. 64, Marcus Valerius Martialis (A.D. 31-41 to 103), better known as Martial, arrived in Rome aged 26 from his Spanish hometown of Bilbilis, famous then for its iron mines and for the manufacture of steel, and a center of Roman…