While you remain at home your hair is at the hairdresser's; you take out your teeth at night and sleep tucked away in a hundred cosmetics boxes - even your face does not sleep with you.
MartialSee, how the liver is swollen larger than a fat goose! In amazement you will exclaim: Where could this possibly grow?
MartialYou are sad in the midst of every blessing. Take care that Fortune does not observe--or she will call you ungrateful.
MartialThe bee is enclosed, and shines preserved, in a tear of the sisters of Phaeton, so that it seems enshrined in its own nectar. It has obtained a worthy reward for its great toils; we may suppose that the bee itself would have desired such a death.
MartialThat which prevents disagreeable flies from feeding on your repast, was once the proud tail of a splendid bird.
MartialI am a shell-fish just come from being saturated with the waters of the Lucrine lake, near Baiae; but now I luxuriously thrust for noble pickle.
MartialYour seventh wife, Phileros, is now being buried in your field. No man's field brings him greater profit than yours, Phileros.
MartialA good man doubles the length of his existence; to have lived so as to look back with pleasure on our past existence is to live twice.
MartialIf your slave commits a fault, do not smash his teeth with your fists; give him some of the (hard) biscuit which famous Rhodes has sent you.
MartialThe swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself the singer of its own dirge.
MartialBe satisfied, and pleased with what thou art, Act cheerfully and well thou allotted part; Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past, And neither fear, nor wish, the approaches of the last.
MartialI seem to you cruel and too much addicted to gluttony, when I beat my cook for sending up a bad dinner. If that appears to you too trifling a cause, say for what cause you would have a cook flogged.
MartialYou give me nothing during your life, but you promise to provide for me at your death. If you are not a fool, you know what I wish for!
MartialIt is easy in adversity to despise death; he has real fortitude who dares to live and be wretched.
MartialYou complain, friend Swift, of the length of my epigrams, but you yourself write nothing. Yours are shorter.
MartialIf I remember right, Aelia, you had four teeth; a cough displaced two, another two more. You can now cough without anxiety all the day long. A third cough can find nothing to do in your mouth.
MartialYou admire, Vacerra, only the poets of old and praise only those who are dead. Pardon me, I beseech you, Vacerra, if I think death too high a price to pay for your praise.
Martial