Editing Epigram (section)

==Ancient Roman==
Roman epigrams owe much to their Greek predecessors and contemporaries. Roman epigrams, however, were often more satirical than Greek ones, and at times used obscene language for effect. Latin epigrams could be composed as inscriptions or [[graffiti]], such as this one from [[Pompeii]], which exists in several versions and seems from its inexact meter to have been composed by a less educated person. Its content makes it clear how popular such poems were:

{{Poem quote|{{lang|la|Admiror, O paries, te non cecidisse ruinis
qui tot scriptorum taedia sustineas.}}

I'm astonished, wall, that you haven't collapsed into ruins,
since you're holding up the weary verse of so many poets.}}

However, in the literary world, epigrams were most often gifts to patrons or entertaining verse to be published, not inscriptions. Many Roman writers seem to have composed epigrams, including [[Domitius Marsus]], whose collection ''Cicuta'' (now lost) was named after the poisonous plant ''[[Cicuta]]'' for its biting wit, and [[Lucan (poet)|Lucan]], more famous for his epic ''[[Pharsalia]]''. Authors whose epigrams survive include [[Catullus]], who wrote both invectives and love epigrams &ndash; his poem 85 is one of the latter.

{{Poem quote|{{lang|la|Odi et amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requiris.
Nescio, sed fieri sentio, et excrucior.}}

I hate and I love. Maybe you'd like to know why I do?
I don't know, but I feel it happening, and I am tormented.}}

[[Martial]], however, is considered to be the master of the Latin epigram.<ref name="Fitzgerald2013">{{cite book|author=William Fitzgerald|title=How to Read a Latin Poem: If You Can't Read Latin Yet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDhoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA81|date=21 February 2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-163204-4|pages=81}}</ref><ref name="Milnor2014">{{cite book|author=Kristina Milnor|title=Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndbQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA64|year=2014|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-968461-8|pages=64}}</ref><ref name="Harington2009">{{cite book|author=Sir John Harington|title=The Epigrams of Sir John Harington|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3tjygZWWmIC&pg=PA25|year=2009|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-6002-6|pages=25}}</ref> His technique relies heavily on the satirical poem with a joke in the last line, thus drawing him closer to the modern idea of epigram as a genre. Here he defines his genre against a (probably fictional) critic (in the latter half of 2.77):

{{Poem quote|{{lang|la|Disce quod ignoras: Marsi doctique Pedonis
saepe duplex unum pagina tractat opus.
Non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere possis,
sed tu, Cosconi, disticha longa facis.}}

Learn what you don't know: one work of (Domitius) Marsus or learned Pedo
often stretches out over a doublesided page.
A work isn't long if you can't take anything out of it,
but you, Cosconius, write even a couplet too long.}}

Poets known for their epigrams whose work has been lost include [[Cornificia]].