Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK EIGHT

PREFACE
VALERIUS IMARTIALIS to the EMPEROR DOMITIANUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS GERMANICUS
DA CICUS GREETING
All these books of mine, Sir, to which you have given their
reputation, that is, their life, are your devoted servants, and I
have no doubt that for this reason they will be read. But this
volume, which is the eighth of nmix collected works, enjoys, in a
greater degree than did the others, opportunities to show its
loyalty, for which cause I have had less occasion for skilled
invention, seeing that the subject-matter compensated for lack
of it, and yet I have tried to produce some variety of theme now
and again by the intermixture of a light jest or so, lest every
verse should force upon your angelic modesty the praises which
are its due, a course which might more easily be wearisome to
you than satisfying to myself.
Although epigrams written by the gravest persons and men of
the highest rank have been so composed as to assume the loose
language of mimes, yet I have not allowed these of mine to speak
with such accustomed licence, for as part of the book, and that
the larger and better part, is associated with the majesty of youtr
sacred name, the work must need remember that only those made
clean by solemn purification may come near the temples, and
to the end that my readers may know that I shall keep this precept,
I have resolved to make my declaration of it in quite a short
epigram at the beginning of this volume.

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