669. The remaining lines of the poem are tasteless and unworthy of the portion quoted, and raise a doubt as to the poet's sincerity in the particular case. But this does not affect his general sympathy for childhood. 670. 101 provides an instance of Martial's sympathy for his own slaves. Cp. 1. 5:-- ne tamen ad Stygias famulus descenderet umbras, ureret implicitum cum scelerata lues, cavimus et domini ius omne remisimus aegro; munere dignus erat convaluisse meo. sensit deficiens mea praemia meque patronum dixit ad infernas liber iturus aquas. 671. i. 13. 672. i. 42. 673. i. 21. He is perhaps at his best on the death of Otho (vi. 32): cum dubitaret adhuc belli civilis Enyo forsitan et posset vincere mollis Otho, damnavit multo staturum sanguine Martem et fodit certa pectora tota manu. sit Cato, dum vivit, sane vel Caesare maior: dum moritur, numquid maior Othone fuit? When doubtful was the chance of civil war, And victory for Otho might declare; That no more Roman blood for him might flow, He gave his breast the great decisive blow. Caesar's superior you may Cato call: Was he so great as Otho in his fall? HAY. 674. It is to be noted that even in the most worthless of his epigrams he never loses his sense of style. If childish epigrams are to be given to the world, they cannot be better written. 675. Cp. Juv. 5; Mart. iii. 60, vi. 11, x. 49; Plin. _Ep_. ii. 6. 676. v. 18. 6. 677. This is doubly offensive if addressed to the poor Cinna of viii. 19. Cp. the similar vii. 53, or the yet more offensive viii. 33 and v. 36. 678. More excusable are poems such as x. 57, where he attacks one Gaius, an old friend (cp. ii. 30), for failing to fulfil his promise, or the exceedingly pointed poem (iv. 40) where he reproaches Postumus, an old friend, for forgetting him. Cp. also v. 52. 679. See p. 252. 680. Cp. the elaborate and long-winded poem of Statius on a statuette of Hercules (_Silv._ iv. 6) with Martial on the same subject, ix. 43 and 44. 681. Cp. viii. 3 and 56. 682. Bridge and Lake, Introd., _Select Epigrams of Martial_. 683. The ancient biographies of the poet all descend from the same source: their variations spring largely from questionable or absurd interpretations of passages in the satires themselves. The best of them, if not their actual source, is the life found at the end of the codex Pithoeanus, the best of the MSS. of Juvenal. It was in all probability written by the author of the scholia Pithoeana--to whom Valla, on the authority of a MS. now lost, gave the name of Probus--and dates from the fourth or fifth century. 684. L. 41. Cp. Plin. _Ep._ ii. 11. 685. xiii. 17 'sexaginta annos Fonteio consule natus'. xv. 27 'nuper consule Iunco'.