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Lugubelinus The marginalia of an easily distracted Classicist

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Help me: is this funny?
The Roman poet Martial was an epigrammatist, meaning that he specialized in very short poems. In total he wrote about 1,500 poems that we still have,
and he must have written a lot more. But they dont come much shorter than the 24th epigram of Martials sixth book, published in AD 91:
Nil lasciuius est Carisiano:
Saturnalibus ambulat togatus.
Carisianus is the most mischievous man alive:
He walks about in a toga during the Saturnalia.
This summer I spent a few days working through all of Martials epigrams, on the hunt for material to use at this event
(http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/whats-on/2014/how-to-read-a-latin-poem/) last week. Martials poems are superficially simple things,
but can belie that appearance, often as intricate as any sophisticated gag; and of course theyre written for the pleasure of readers with a very different
set of cultural assumptions. But 6.24 was one I quickly noted down on my piece of paper: an example of a very short poem with a clever but clear point,
I thought: seven words, simple but funny, and perfect for our event.
Whats so funny about it? Whatever it is, itll certainly be less funny once Ive tried to explain it. But it all hinges on the Roman festival of the Saturnalia
in December. This was the most popular festival of the Roman year, a week in December featuring excessive eating and drinking (exuberant gorgings
and even more excessive drinking bouts, according to one scholar (http://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=kWU33X4gPmUC&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=versnel,+%22saturnus+and+the+saturnalia&source=bl&ots=-Wr2DFctQ5&sig=6AgVor5mtM4X-
bvA0vvjxJaHuSo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dOM7VN3xCvb_sASB_YCgBQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=versnel%2C%20%22saturnus%20and%20the%20saturnalia&f=false)
gift-giving and role reversal (masters would wait on slaves, for example, and slaves could speak freely to their masters), and special clothes: instead
of the toga, the distinctive garment of the Roman citizen, everyone during the Saturnalia dressed in a suit of clothes known as the synthesis or cenatoria.
We dont really know what the synthesis looked like, but it seems to have been looser-fitting than the formal toga, and colourful, and whatever it was
actually like, it symbolized the character of the Saturnalia, a time of uninhibited release.
Are you laughing yet? Probably not. But Martials joke is that by breaking the rules of the Saturnalia and wearing his toga instead of his synthesis,
Carisianus is acting more in the spirit of the Saturnalia than anyone else. The word used of him, lasciuius, suggests uninhibited behaviour, in other
words exactly what was expected of Romans at the Saturnalia. Carisianus is the most outrageous of the lot by virtue of acting totally square when
everyone else is cutting loose. Geddit?
Well I thought Id got it, and Mary Beard agreed (and shes written a book on Roman laughter
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/10927196/Laughter-in-Ancient-Rome-by-Mary-Beard-review-complex-and-acute.html)), and
there was at least a ripple of amusement in our audience at Cheltenham as we tried to explain it.
(https://llewelynmorgan.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/sarcophagus_of_the_brother_man_napoli_inv6603_n01.jpg)
Marie-Lan Nguyen
But it turns out the Martial specialists dont agree at all. Farouk Grewing, whos written a commentary on Book 6
(http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Martial_Buch_6.html?id=hnYBXNEnrIoC&redir_esc=y), thinks the joke is much more complicated than this.
What were meant to understand, according to him, is that Carisianus is actually a woman, specifically a woman who has been convicted of adultery
and as punishment has to wear the toga. That was indeed a way of stigmatizing fallen women in Rome, the toga being, as well as the Roman citizens
proper clothing, the garment worn by prostitutes (to distinguish them from respectable women, who wore the stola). Martials joke, according to
Grewing, and Martial is certainly well capable of such viciousness, is that a woman dressed in a toga as punishment is mistaken for a man too uptight to
dress down for the Saturnalia.
If so, as another scholar, Andreas Heil, points out,* Martial is being very oblique indeed, since theres no indication anywhere in 6.24 that the
protagonist is a woman, and Latin is meticulous about these things: the -us at the end of Carisianus and togatus indicate clearly that hes a he. But
Heil agrees with Grewing that a simpler reading of the poem is unsatisfactory: It is hard to understand why wearing the toga at the Saturnalia should
be proof of the special lascivia [mischievousness, naughtiness] of Charisianus. Heils solution is that by telling us that Carisianus wears the toga at the
Saturnalia, Martial is implying that he wears the synthesis the rest of the year: that is, Carisianus is lasciuus because on every day of the year other than
the Saturnalia he dresses louchely, and behaves accordingly. A Roman citizen who habitually dressed in the synthesis would be a very disreputable
character indeed.
Now that all seems too complicated for me, but theres no doubt Martial can be complicated. Im planning to write another blog soon showing just how
October 11, 2014
Now that all seems too complicated for me, but theres no doubt Martial can be complicated. Im planning to write another blog soon showing just how
much can be going on in a seemingly simple two-line Martial epigram. But I think what matters here is that both Grewing and Heil feel a need to
complicate the reading of 6.24 because a simpler reading of the poem doesnt deliver enough of a punch. Isnt funny.
But it is funny, right?
(A freer translation:
Carisianus is so shocking:
At the Saturnalia he goes round in a toga!)
*A. Heil, Bemerkungen zu Martial: 6, 24. 6, 61. 6, 75. 9, 35 und 12, 5, Philologus 146 (2002), 309-17, at 309-10.
About Llewelyn Morgan
I'm a Classicist, lucky enough to work at Brasenose College, Oxford. I specialise in Roman literature, but I've got a persistent side-interest in
Afghanistan, particularly the scholars and spies and scholar-spies who visited the country in the nineteenth century.
View all posts by Llewelyn Morgan
5 responses to Help me: is this funny?
Dunstan Lowe says : October 13, 2014 at 8:21 am
Presumably those who think Carisianus is a meretrix find Charis (a hetaira-name) in it? But according to Pauly-Wissowa it was not that exotic a
name, either in Greece or at Rome. The simple reading is probably right, though ambulat might add some mock-serious play-acting (strides about in
a suit and tie), as it can mean taking on airs, at least in Horace (Epod. 4.5, Sat. 1.2.25, 1.4.66).
REPLY
Llewelyn Morgan says : October 13, 2014 at 9:18 am
Thank you! Yes, thats mentioned, and there is some MS disagreement between Carisianus and Charisianus. I like your thought about ambulat.
In a poem of seven words I guess every one of them carries disproportionate weight, and Id rather ignored that one. Which might be an
argument for the deeper significance of his name, of course. I think Im discovering why Id never edit a book of Martial.
REPLY
alan macdonald says : October 13, 2014 at 11:52 am
well I am not exactly falling off my chair in Mogadishu but ..nevertheless I have learnt something and been distracted from the raging chaos
outside
REPLY
Llewelyn Morgan says : October 13, 2014 at 12:44 pm
Well if Martials hilarious jokes keep you safely inside, my blogs achieved something.
REPLY
Aven McMaster says : October 13, 2014 at 1:41 pm
On a first reading, before you gave your explanation, I took Heils approach; I presumed the point was that he properly observed the Saturnalia by
reversing his usual behaviour, so toga-wearing then implied Saturnalian laxness all the rest of the year. The woman-as-man explanation didnt occur
to me, and I still dont really understand it.
REPLY
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