10 Saturnalia Gift’s from Martial’s Epigrams

notā bene — many of the the epigrams are written from the perspective of the gift itself

10. Mushrooms

Argentum atque aurum facile est laenamque togamque
mittere; boletos mittere difficile est.

It is easy to send silver and gold, a cloak and toga;
it is difficult to send mushrooms.

Martial, Epigrams 13.48

Sanguine de nostro tinctas, ingrate, lacernas
induis, et non est hoc satis; esca sumus.

You, ingrate, wear cloaks dyed with our blood,¹ and this is not enough; we are food.

Martial, Epigrams 13.87

Cum steterit nullus vultu tibi talus eodem,
munera me dices magna dedisse tibi.

When none of your knucklebones fall with the same side up,²
you will say that I have have given you a great gift.

Martial, Epigrams 14.14

Hac mihi bis seno numeratur tessera puncto;
calculus hac gemino discolor hoste perit.

On this side of me, the board is numbered with twelve markings;
on the other, a colorful counter perishes at the hand of a twin enemy.³

Martial, Epigrams 14.17

Excipient apros expectabuntque leones, intrabunt ursos, sit modo firma manus.

They will receive wild boars and waylay lions, the will pierce bears, should only there be a firm hand.

Martial, Epigrams, 14.30

Pergamon has misit. curvo destringere ferro:
non tam saepe teret lintea fullo tibi.

Pergamon sent these. Be scraped down by the curved iron:
The fuller will not wear out your linens so often.⁴

Martial, Epigrams 14.51

Setinos, moneo, nostra nive frange trientes:
pauperiore mero tingere lina potes.

I exhort you, dilute your Setine cups with my snow:⁵
you can stain linen bags with cheaper wine.

Martial, Epigrams 14.103

Ancillam tibi sors dedit lucernae,
totas quae vigil exigit tenebras.

Fate has given you a handmaid for your lamp,⁶
who keeps vigil throughout the night.

Martial, Epigrams 14.40

Secta nisi in tenues essemus ligna tabellas,
essemus Libyci nobile dentis onus.

If we, pieces of wood, had not been cut into thin tablets,
we would have been the noble burden of a Libyan tusk.⁷

Martial, Epigrams 14.3

Ilias et Priami regnis inimicus Ulixes
multiplici pariter condita pelle latent.

The Iliad and Ulysses,⁸ hostile to Priam’s kingdom,
lay together stored in many-folded skins.⁹

Martial, Epigrams 14.184

Tyrian purple dye was made from the mucus of the murex. ↩︎
The highest throw in knucklebones, called the iactus Veneris, was when each knucklebone showed a different number. ↩︎
The game board in question has a reversable design; one side is for playing duodecim scripta, while the other is for playing latrunculi. ↩︎
Fullers were ancient Roman laundry workers. Martial claims that the recipient of the gift will not need his linens cleaned as often if he uses the strigiles to clean himself. ↩︎
Wine made in the town of Setia in Latium was known to be a delicate and costly vintage. ↩︎
The modest candle is the ancilla of the more expensive lamp. ↩︎
The wood from which the writing tablets were made would have apparently made a suitable table top; the base for the table would have been ivory. ↩︎
The hero Ulysses here stands in for the poem which bears his name (the Odyssey). ↩︎
i.e. a codex ↩︎