Martial (43‒104)

Martial, a Latin poet, born at Bilbilis, in Spain; went to Rome, stayed there, favoured of the emperors Titus and Domitian, for 35 years, and then returned to his native city, where he wrote his Epigrammata, a collection of short poems over 1500 in number, divided into 14 books, books xiii. and xiv. being entitled respectively Xenia and Apophoreta; these epigrams are distinguished for their wit, diction, and indecency, but are valuable for the light they shed on the manners of Rome at the period (43‒104).

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)