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 Terracotta roundel of a Roman couple; the Latin translates “May you grow old together.” |
The marriage of Claudia Peregrina to Martial’s friend Pudens is celebrated in this brief epithalamium or Wedding song. The newlyweds are praised for being perfectly matched in every way and are proffered the traditional blessing of a perfect marriage, concordia. It is not harmony of the home that the poet prays for, however, but rather that the gifts of Venus, the goddess of love, remain in their marriage always and keep them from ever seeing each other as senex and anus. The poem is written in elegiac couplet, a literary form which consists of two lines of poetry in dactylic meter: the first line is in hexameter, the second in pentameter (see this illustration of the meter). |
| 1 | Claudia, Rufe, meo nubit Peregrina Pudenti: |
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macte esto taedis, O Hymenaee, tuis. |
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| Tam bene rara suo miscentur cinnama nardo, | |
| 5 | Nec melius teneris iunguntur vitibus ulmi, |
| Candida perpetuo reside, Concordia, lecto, | |
| diligat illa senem quondam, sed et ipsa marito | |
| 10 |
tum quoque, cum fuerit, non videatur anus. |
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