The first extensive treatment of Catullus’ influence on Martial is Paukstadt’s (1876) dissertation. Paukstadt provides a wealth of relevant passages and offers some very useful interpretations. His findings had a strong influence on the annotations in Friedlaender’s (1886) commentary, and also on all subsequent commentaries on Martial’s books of epigrams. A list of further passages from Martial (and others) which betray Catullan influence has been provided by Schulze (1887). Barwick (1958; cf. Beck 1996) offers a contrastive analysis of Catullus’ and Martial’s book structure. Ferguson (1970) concentrates on the two poets’ respective use of meter.
Most modern publications on Catullus and Martial mainly present passages from the two poets in order to point out similarities and differences. Nowadays, Ferguson’s (1963) and Offermann’s (1980) approach of analyzing the two poets’ characters and motivations to write poetry feels rather outdated. Swann (1994; cf. his short article from 1998) examines Martial’s reception of Catullus within the wider spectrum of the two poets’ Nachleben. When Swann analyzes the poems with regard to the times Catullus and Martial lived in, his interpretations often add up to little more than cataloguing parallels. On the two poets’ fate in the Renaissance, Gaisser (1993) offers much deeper analyses. Some ideas on the history of epigram in general are also offered in Summers’s (2001) short article.
There is some interesting work on single instances of Catullan influences on Martial. Nemeth’s (1974) contrastive analyses of Catullus 40 and Martial 12.61 discusses many aspects of the two pieces. Grewing (1996) compares Catullus’ Lesbia poems with Martial’s epigrams on his beloved boy Diadumenos (cf. Obermayer 1998: 66-9). Offermann (1986) discusses how Martial’s adaptations of Catullus’ poems could be used in the classroom.
A list of further publications referring to parallels between the two poets is provided by Lorenz (2003: 253-5). In order to point out Martial’s debt to Catullus as well as his originality, Fedeli (2004) examines various epigrams that betray Catullan influence.
World History
