one of the earliest among the Romans who gave to the epigram that distinctive character which it retains to the present day; for the earlier Latin poets and the Greeks applied the term epigram to any short poem, whatever the nature or form of it might be. Thus the Greek Anthology contains under one name compositions of the most different kinds. But since Martial the epigram, both in Latin and the modern European languages, has been mostly restricted to mean a poem of a few lines, in which all the thoughts and expressions converge to one sharp point, which forms the termination of the piece. It is however to be observed, that in Martial we find several pieces which would not now be reckoned as properly belonging to the class of epigrams. Encomiums on Domitian, versified notes to his friends, epitaphs, descriptions of rural life, and invectives against his enemies, are all found intermingled with the more legitimate epigrams. As literary compositions his writings have undoubtedly very great merit, and he was justly called the Virgil of epigrammatists. In his own time he enjoyed a widely-spread popularity; and in modern days his works have been much read, and frequently imitated. Many of the best-known modern epigrams are taken from him, just as the germ of most modern fables is to be found in Æsop. Few writers have equalled Martial either in the graceful flattery of his adroit compliments, or in the piercing keenness of his trenchant sarcasms. As examples of the former, we may notice book x., ep. 19, 23, 32, 34, 44, 72 of the Delphin edition (we have purposely taken our instances from one book alone to make the task of selection easier). For examples of sarcasm and invective, compare book v., ep. 42, 62, 70; vi. 39, 64, 77; x. 65, 98. His love of external nature and the pleasures of a rural life may be seen in book i., ep. 50; iii. 58; x. 30; xii. 18, 31. In the class of epitaphs and elegiac pieces in honour of the dead, we have book vi., 28, 29, 52, 85; x. 26; xi. 14. In book v. 21; viii. 44, and x. 47, he imitates Horace; and in i. 110; v. 43; vi. 42, and several others, he reminds us of Catullus. There is sometimes a mournful beauty and a vein of tender sentiment in his best pieces, which ought to place him very high in the ranks of Latin poetry. To the historical student he is of great value. It is from him and Juvenal, not from Statins and Pliny, that we catch the real spirit of the age. They show us in the clearest light the unbelief, the sensuality, the idleness, the greediness for money, the licentious profusion, the inhuman cruelty, and the unutterable debaucheries which then prevailed at Rome. From them, too, we learn how the natives of the most distant regions were attracted to Rome by the cosmopolite tendency of the policy of the first Cæsars; what the different European provinces now are to their respective capitals, all the civilized parts of the imperial world then were to Rome. That fusion of nations which was consummated by the migration of the German races was gradually stealing on, and paving the way for the easier advance of catholic humanity. Martial has frequently been translated into English; but none of the versions is very successful. Among the best modern editions are those of Lemaire, Paris, 1825, and Schneidewinn, 1842. The Delphin edition, by Vincent Collesso, has a good collection of notes, and that of Farnaby, dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh, is also useful.—G.
MARTIGNAC, Jean Baptiste Silvère Algay, Viscount de, French statesman, was born at Bourdeaux in 1776. He was educated for the bar and also displayed in his youth a considerable amount of literary ability. A devoted loyalist, he was faithful to the Bourbons during the Hundred Days; and when they were again restored he was made advocate-general of the cour-royale in his native town. In 1821 he was elected to the chamber of deputies; his talents were undeniable; his eloquence was facile and charming; and by the following year he was made a councillor of state. Vice-president of the chamber in 1823, he was frequently re-elected to that office. When the army of the Duke d'Angoulême invaded Spain, De Martignac accompanied it as a civil commissioner. He was created a viscount in 1826. More liberal in his ideas than Villèle or Polignac, he was the guiding spirit of a ministry of compromise which took office in 1828, and fell disliked by both parties in the following year. Polignac it was who consummated its overthrow; another year elapsed, the revolution of July occurred, and Polignac, accused of high treason, applied to his old antagonist to defend him. Martignac generously and fearlessly complied with a request which was in itself a proof of very high confidence in his honour; and he performed his difficult task with great earnestness and ability. When he died in 1832 he was universally regretted; for his old political foes were reconciled to him, and private enemies he had never made.—W. J. P.
MARTIN, the name of five popes—
Martin I. (Saint), a native of Tuscany, was elected pope in 649. At a council held in the Lateran church the same year, the western bishops condemned the Ecthesis of Heraclius and the Typus of Constans II., which had either favoured or prescribed silence respecting the heresy of the monothelites. For this Constans commanded the exarch Calliopas, who was sent to Italy in 653, to seize the pope and send him as a prisoner to Constantinople. The order was strictly obeyed. Martin, after a tedious journey, was brought to Constantinople in September, 654, and after suffering the greatest ill-usage with inflexible constancy in the imperial prisons, was banished to the Crimea. The want of the common necessaries of life, together with the effects of his past sufferings, here terminated his existence in September, 655.
Martin II., sometimes called Marinus I., was employed for many years by different popes on missions of great delicacy and importance. As the legate of Nicholas I. he visited Constantinople in 866, to pronounce the excommunication of the Patriarch Photius. Again in 879, when the Emperor Basil and an Eastern synod had reinstated Photius, he was sent by Pope John VIII. to renew the excommunication. He was elevated to the popedom in 882, and continued his vigorous measures against the refractory patriarch, but died before the expiration of eighteen months.
Martin III., sometimes called Marinus II., was probably a native of Rome; he was elected as the successor of Stephen VIII. in 942. Living in the darkest period of the dark ages, he has left us but few and uncertain indications whereby to judge of his character. He is said to have granted privileges with a liberal hand to various religious orders, and to have spent large sums in the building of churches. He died in 946.
Martin IV., a Frenchman, whose family name was Simon de Brie, was appointed in 1260 keeper of the seals to Louis IX. He officiated as papal legate in France during the pontificates of Urban IV. and Gregory X., and after the death of Nicholas III. was elected pope in 1281, taking the name of Martin in honour of St. Martin of Tours. In the following year occurred the famous Sicilian vespers, the result of which was the downfall of the French power in Sicily, and the erection of that island into a separate kingdom under the house of Arragon. The successful invader, Peter, king of Arragon, was vainly excommunicated and deposed by the pope, who offered his dominions to Philip le Bel. Martin died in 1285.
Martin V., a member of the noble Roman family of the Colonna, an ecclesiastic of virtuous life and tried prudence, was elected pope at the council of Constance in 1417, after the deposition or resignation of the three rival pontiffs, who were disputing the allegiance of the christian world. As he rode through the city to be crowned, the Emperor Sigismund held his bridle-rein on the right hand, and the elector of Brandenburg on the left. In the following year Martin dissolved the council, and set out on his return to Rome. After long delays on the road, occasioned by the disturbed state of the papal territories, Martin entered Rome in September, 1420, amid the acclamations of the inhabitants. The last spark of the great schism of the West was extinguished in 1429, when the pope received the submission of Giles de Munion, the successor of the anti-pope Benedict XIII. Martin's energy in raising Rome out of its ruins, earned for him the appellation of the second Romulus. He died of apoplexy in 1431.—T. A.
MARTIN (Saint), usually called Saint Martin of Tuy, was born in Pannonia in the early part of the sixth century. After visiting the holy places he sailed to Spain, and landed on the coast of Gallicia. He visited Theodomir, the Suevic king of that country, and induced him to renounce the Arian heresy, to which most of the barbarian conquerors of Spain at that time adhered. The Suevi in great numbers followed the example of their prince and embraced the orthodox faith. Saint Martin founded a monastery at Tuy, which was afterwards erected into an episcopal see, of which he was appointed the first bishop in 567. He was subsequently raised to the metropolitan see of Braga in Portugal, where he died in 580. His works consist of a "Collection of eighty-four Canons;" a "Treatise on the Four Cardinal Virtues;" a "Collection of the Maxims of the Solitaries of Egypt."—T. A.
