Accordingly, nowhere in Catullus, Horace, Propertius, Tibullus, or
Ovid do we find a single suggestion that the poets ever ‘‘performed’’ at
their own or anyone else’sconvivia. They all issue numerous invitations
to parties of various sorts, to friends of various standings (including
their ‘‘patrons’’), but never once do they say that they will perform.^76
They describe going to numerous parties, but never once suggest that
their duties included performing there. Neither Persius nor Juvenal was
reticent about the horrors of the literary life, but they never mention
being forced to provide dinner-theater entertainment as one of them.^77
Martial, too, never shows a single case, and as Nauta rightly observes
(2002, 96):
Indeed, it must be doubted whether Martial ever held full dress recitations.
Whenever he boasts of his popularity as a poet, he refers not to his
hearers but to his readers. There are only a few passages where he represents
himself as reciting, and there the situation seems to be one informal social
exchange rather than performance for large invited audiences: he always
recites to one specified person, who sometimes reciprocates by reciting
in turn.^78No guest is ever made to sing for his supper.^79
The Role of Performance in the Circulation of Roman Poetry
Ubi sunt qui aiuntÇþóÅò øíÅò~?
(What nonsense that is about the living voice!)—Cic.Att. 2.12.2 [30 Shackleton Bailey; his trans.]
- For example, Cat. 10, 13; contrast the informal mutuality of poetic exchange in Cat.
50 and Martial (below). This is the point of Tacitus’s picture of Nero attempting to force into
existence dinner parties of poets (Ann. 14.16). - The poet in Persius 1.30 40 is dead and derives no benefit from the professional
reader who performs his works (rightly Korfmacher 1933, 283). For Bramble (1974, 100 5)
the poet is only ‘‘metaphorically dead.’’ Juvenal 7 has the bad patron rent a lousy house for
his poet client, but does not have him summon the poet to perform at his home. - Nauta goes on to say (96 7), ‘‘However, there is some evidence, both circumstantial
and internal, that there was one social occasion at which Martial gave oral presentation of his
poetry throughout his career. This occasion is the dinner party or symposium.’’ However, he
offers no evidence from Martial (his other examples are Greek and do not speak about a poet
performing his own works), apart from the two passages in which Martial says he willnot
perform (5.78.25, 11.52.16). This leads to a weak and speculative conclusion: ‘‘If Martial’s
satiric epigrams were indeed performed at symposia, they would fulfil the same function
(but on a higher level of sophistication) as thescurrae,cinaedi,moriones, mentioned by
Pliny,’’ showing exactly why Martial did not perform such tricks. - The nearest case is Tac.Ann. 14.48: Antistius, a praetor, recites verses against Nero
when dining at house of Ostorius Scapula (vulgavitque celebri convivio). This is, however, not
a ‘‘performance.’’ The praetor is a guest, not the entertainment. InAnn. 3.49 readiecerat:
Koestermann 1963, I: 512; cf. Furneaux 1896, I: 450.
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