3. The _Silvae_, which represent the poet in his less serious mood, are occasional poems on miscellaneous subjects, published in five separate Books. Cf. 1, praef. 'Diu multumque dubitavi ... an hos libellos, ... cum singuli de sinu meo prodierint, congregates ipse dimitterem.' Many of them were thrown off in haste at the command of the Emperor or the request of friends: cf. such expressions as 'stili facilitas' (ii. praef.), 'libellorum temeritas,' 'hanc audaciam stili nostri' (iii. praef.). Of the poems in Book i. he says, 'nullum ex illis biduo longius tractum, quaedam et in singulis diebus effusa' (i. praef.). Each of the Books is introduced by a prose preface. None of the _Silvae_ appeared before A.D. 92; for Rutilius Gallicus, for whom i. 4 was written, died in that year, and the poem was not published till after his death (i. praef.). Book v. was probably a posthumous work: there is no proper preface, and the third and fifth poems are incomplete. Hexameter verse is employed for all the _Silvae_ except six. Of these, four are in hendecasyllabics, one in the Alcaic and one in the Sapphic stanza. 4. The only other poem of which there is distinct evidence is the pantomime _Agave_, written not later than A.D. 84, the year in which the player Paris was put to death (Juv. _Sat._ 7, 86, quoted above). MARTIAL.[90] (1) LIFE. M. Valerius Martialis (Coquus is added in the old glossaries) was born at Bilbilis in Hispania Tarraconensis on 1st March in one of the years A.D. 38-41. His tenth Book, written A.D. 95-8, contains a poem (x. 24) written on his fifty-seventh birthday. Cf. ll. 4-5, 'quinquagesima liba septimamque vestris addimus hanc focis acerram'; ix. 52, 3, 'ut nostras amo Martias Kalendas'; x. 103, 1, 'Municipes, Augusta mihi quos Bilbilis acri monte creat, rapidis quem Salo cingit aquis.' His parents' names are given, v. 34, 1, 'Fronto pater, genetrix Flaccilla.' Martial went through the usual education at Bilbilis or at a neighbouring town; ix. 73, 7, 'At me litterulas stulti docuere parentes: quid cum grammaticis rhetoribusque mihi?' Martial went to Rome A.D. 64, for in A.D. 98, when he left Rome, he gives the length of his stay as thirty-four years; x. 103, 7, 'Quattuor accessit tricesima messibus aestas, ut sine me Cereri rustica liba datis, moenia dum colimus dominae pulcherrima Romae.' At Rome Martial became the client of the house of the Senecas, and was on intimate terms with L. Calpurnius Piso, Memmius Gemellus, and Vibius Crispus; xii. 36, 8, 'Pisones Senecasque Memmiosque et Crispos mihi redde sed priores.' The failure of Piso's conspiracy in A.D. 65 and the consequent downfall of the Senecas must have affected Martial's position. In A.D. 96 Martial addresses as his patroness Argentaria Polla, Lucan's widow, the only surviving member of the family; x. 64, 1, 'Contigeris regina meos si Polla libellos,' etc.