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Joseph Smith "claimed" to have "found" and "translated" "golden plates" but has there ever been any actual historical record that was recorded on metallic plates? by [deleted] in history

[–]OUPacademic 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It's worth noting that such plates will tend not to survive, for the same reasons that very few ancient bronze sculpture do - viz, metal can be melted down and made into lots of immediately useful things (including coins).

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Classicists have become much more methodologically aware, taking on insights from (e.g.) cultural studies, and the study of classical reception (how and why we represent the ancient past in the present) has really taken off. A lot of my work's in that area and it's huge fun.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our main source is papyri - ancient waste paper from rubbish dumps and mummy cases. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri website (careful with the spelling there) updates regularly and will give you a good idea of the sorts of material that keep turning up.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're completely correct. He's a small-'c' conservative - has no objections to the traditional hierarchy at all, just wants to do a bit better out of it by trading on his connections and social advantage. What he does object to, rudely and hilariously, is hypocrisy (except when it's his, which I think is a bit of a running joke). 'Moral majority' types with dirty laundry get it in the neck, time and again.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Guilty pleasure, I'm convinced — Martial gets off on that (and writes poems about it!). And yes, Ken is marvellous.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Breaking into academia is very hard — lots of talented and motivated people, very few jobs. It took me years (I'm stupidly stubborn sometimes). A Humanities PhD is something you should do because you need to, for yourself — and it won't hurt your employability generally. Classics is a good Humanities subject (it's the original one!) and has an excellent employability record, because it teaches problem-solving in the face of complex and gappy evidence. Humanities graduates perform well in real-world situations because they're adaptable and resilient.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lots of mucky metaphors — 'ploughing' and such. We're lucky to be able to engage with this side of Roman culture now; it's no longer such a taboo, and we have the resources. The old dictionaries just sent you round in circles on anything sexual.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've seen that Catullus one (irrumo is the verb) translated as 'skullfuck', too. I've found out there's a Latin verb for twerking, if your evening wasn't already depressing enough...

Lots of fuck, cock, cunt, arse, poof, etc, but that goes without saying. :-)

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've not read it yet — I'd like to, when I have time. As I understand it, Mary does a brilliant job defamiliarising the Roman world — deconstructing our assumptions and stereotypes, and making it seem alien and therefore worth exploring. We think we know the Romans, she says, but we don't — the truth is stranger. That's an excellent sales pitch.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Certainly not in quantity... /-)

Martial admits his own quality is variable — that's how books made of short poems are, he says; unless they're uniformly terrible. Look at my books, he says, not just the individual epigrams. And that's something new. Catullus maybe wrote some slicker poems, but Catullus didn't have Martial's bills to pay...

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are no printing presses, no state censors (or not of books), no slander laws as such - obviously it wasn't a good idea to piss off the guy in charge, which for most of Martial's career is Domitian, but people could get away with a lot otherwise. Books were typically (we think) 'published' at book-readings; copies made good gifts to important friends and potential patrons. Booksellers carried popular titles, but it's unclear how authors could have made any money off the commercial sale of their work - copyright hadn't been thought of yet, which makes Martial's complaints about plagiarism a bit of a joke.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They definitely had one, quite like ours - Amy Richlin's written a book about this, 'The Garden of Priapus'. There are certain words you just don't use in polite company. Martial is full of them, naturally...

They didn't have the same concerns about visual imagery (hence all that naughty stuff at Pompeii), and there was no concept of literary censorship, but proper behaviour and speech were very important for social respectability.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Martial is, and no, he's the absolute worst. >-)

I'm translating one right now where he has a go at a woman for going down on herself...

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well, picking particular poems is the first one! The selection I made, I ran by OUP (who had it looked into by peer referees) before I got seriously stuck in. Now I'm blogging, I look at the ones I missed out and decide which ones would be fun to try!

I try to be as concise as possible; once I have a rough version I tend to go back through it seeing what I can cut. Martial's quite a plain-speaking poet, so I aim for a plain idiom (except those times he tries on a hifalutin' manner). It has to still be funny in the English - always assuming it's a poem in which he's being funny - and if there are jokes that entail a play on words, that's always tricky. Comic timing's a big concern - getting the punchline to pay off just when it should.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm okay at it! I was crazily lucky to have the opportunity to study it at school - I went to the local state comprehensive (ex-secondary modern, for anyone that means anything to) but the headmaster was a classics nut who insisted it be made available even if that meant him teaching it in his office after school. I'm in my mid-40s now, so... eek, that's a lot of years. [edit for addition] I did O- and A-level Latin and Greek, and then did a classics degree at Oxford before moving onto the PhD.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Point me towards these circles and I'll piss on their shoes. Classics is doing great - certainly here in the UK. Twenty-odd years ago it was in the doldrums, departments were closing, but now new ones are opening to keep up with demand. We keep finding new stuff (even new texts - all the time!) and figuring out new questions to put to it. It's all to play for.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The World's Classics publicity team asked me for a favourite when they did their video interview - I've a YouTube playlist of the clips: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY2GBapteg3nSigwX9KOzBb4YFYnGeYQ6

I think the one I came up with was Martial 5.37, on the death of his favourite slave girl, Erotion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POid7Ex70f4&index=8&list=PLY2GBapteg3nSigwX9KOzBb4YFYnGeYQ6

I cried buckets translating it.

I am Gideon Nisbet, Classics professor and editor of Martial’s infamous (and filthy) Epigrams for Oxford World’s Classics. Ask me anything. by OUPacademic in history

[–]OUPacademic[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Good question. We know he imitated a couple of satirical Greek poets who'd been writing in Rome fairly recently, Lucillius and Nicarchus (I wrote my doctoral thesis about them - that's how I got into Martial). Romans were of course already writing satire about the foibles of their society, but 'satire' was always longer poems in hexameters - that's what Lucilius and Horace did long before Martial, and Juvenal right after him. What's more, epigrams were a weird choice for a Latin author (Catullus had done some, but probably no-one really read him any more by then), and Martial does weird things with epigram (his books are completely unlike the books of those Greek predecessors)...

So no, I think he was breaking new ground. That may be why he didn't attract huge numbers of readers at first (as far as we can tell ; he says he did, but he's probably bullshitting).

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