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NEGER, M., Martials Dichtergedichte. Das Epigramm als Medium der poetischen Selbstreflexion. Narr Verlag, Tübingen, 2012. X,382p. Paperback. A lot of scholarly pencil markings, annotations and underlinings. Series: Classica Monacensia, Band 44. ‘Over the past decade, several important studies of Martial have come from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, and more specifically from the circle of Professor Niklas Holzberg. By ‘important’ I mean not only well written and worth the read but also fresh in their approach, somewhat provocative and hence also boundary-pushing. These studies have contributed significantly to the way in which modern scholarship regards the works of Martial (…). In the introduction, Neger (N.) states that her book will deal above all with the occurrences of real and fictitious authors in Martial’s books and their function in his discourse on poetical theory. (…) Another major point is to investigate which authors, genres and periods play a more important role in Martial’s works and which do less so, and what line Martial takes on them. (…) The method used by N. to get at Martial’s notion of himself as a poet and of epigram as a genre is primarily an indirect one, which is made necessary by the fact that Martial seldom says anything about the way in which he regards himself as a poet or what he considers his epigrams to be. (…) We have to draw our conclusions from the indirect statements made by the speaker of the ‘Epigrams’ about the poetry of others, from allusions to other texts, and from the speaker’s reactions to opinions expressed by others (…). This approach mostly works well, although the discussion of individual epigrams and contexts sometimes is rather complex. (…) It is no surprise that Catullus is held out as Martial’s most important model, as he is mentioned as such by Martial himself (…). It is typical of the originality of N.’s approach when she suggests that Martial’s Catullus is a character actually constructed by Martial in his ‘Epigrams’: there is in fact no evidence that Catullus was considered an epigrammatist prior to Martial, and he certainly did not himself refer to his own poems, neither the polymetra nor the distichs, as ‘epigrams’. Martial’s frequent references to Catullus as a model could thus be interpreted as an effort to establish Latin epigram as a canonical genre with a distinguished pedigree (p.58), an idea that seems extremely plausible. (…) N. makes the most of every textual parallel that she discusses. Her interpretations, based on a very close reading of Martial’s text, are further combined with a strictly linear reading. To N., the position of every epigram within each book is obviously important and a factor that may contribute significantly to the interpretation. There is no doubt that this is a correct approach. (…) The principle of ‘concatenation’ (by which epigrams are connected to the ones surrounding them by means of similar themes, words or language) is extremely important and is given ample space in N.’s book. (…) The discussions of concatenation and the relation of poems to one another are generally highly informative and quite valuable as illustrating the way in which Martial works. (…) It is my opinion that N. has written a solid and intelligent book that gives the attentive reader a very good picture of the means by which Martial expresses - often indirectly - his understanding about his own poetry and positions himself in the literary history of ancient Greece and Rome. While the basic theses advocated are all very well founded, N.’s ideas are frequently creative and occasionally bold. (…) On the whole, most of what she has to offer does reanimate Martial’s text, sheds new light upon it and as such, it is important.’ (CHRISTER HENRIKSÉN in Mnemosyne, 2014, pp.665-669). € 45.00 (Antiquarian) ISBN: 9783823367598