¹ ‘Problems in Martial (III)’, Mnemosyne 43 (1990), 160–5 at 163.

² Lycoris' status is established by (i) her ownership of a painting of Venus, the patroness of meretrices (Schneider, K., RE 8.1356, Herter, H.JbAC 3 (1960), 86 n. 298), who decorated their houses with portraits of the goddessGoogle Scholar (Gilbert, W., ‘Zum ersten Buch Martials’, Philologus 41 (1882), 364) and (ii) her name, which she shares with a famous predecessor, the courtesan Cytheris-Lycoris, on whom see RE 12.218f. andCrossRefGoogle ScholarNisbet, R.G.M., JRS 69 (1979), 148 and 152ff. Mart. 6.40 also suggests that Lycoris is a courtesan.Google Scholar

³ Izaac (1930), p. 47.

⁴ See OLD s.v. 8. For other objections to this explanation, see Gessler, J., ‘In Martialem’, Latomus 5 (1946), 57–8.Google Scholar

⁵ Op. cit. (previous note).

⁶ Stegen, G., ‘Venus et Minerve’, LEC 27 (1959), 28–30.Google Scholar

⁷ Above, n. 1

⁸ Howell (1980), p. 317.

⁹ Durand, R., ‘In Martialem’, Latomus 5 (1946), 257–8.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Citroni (1975), p. 312.

¹¹ We omit from consideration the highly improbable interpretations of the poem offered by Farnaby/Schrevel (1656) and the Delphin editions of 1720 and 1823.

¹² 4.62.1; 7.13. 2; 3.39.

¹³ Paley and Stone (1881), on line 1 (‘perhaps a portrait of Lycoris…dressed as Venus’).

¹⁴ See Athenaeus 590F'591A and RE 20.898f. s.v. ‘Phryne’. This famous work, acknowledged to be Apelles' masterpiece, was installed by Augustus ‘in delubro patris Caesaris’, but was subsequently replaced by Nero, when it deteriorated through age and rot (Plin.N.H. 35.91). For what is known, or can be inferred, about the Aphrodite Anadyomene, see Pfuhl, E., Malerei und Zeichnung der Griechen Bd. 2 (München, 1923), pp.740–1.Google Scholar

¹⁵ See for example Athenaeus 590F, Val. Max. 4.3. ext.3, and Quintil. 2.15.9 ‘et Phrynen non Hyperidis actione, quanquam admirabili, sed conspectu corporis, quod ilia speciosissimum alioqui diducta nudaverat tunica, putant periculo liberatam’.

¹⁶ Cf. Mart. 8.73.6 ‘ingenium Galli pulchra Lycoris erat’, Prop. 2.34.91–2 ‘et modo formosa quam multa Lycoride Gallus / mortuus inferna vulnera lavit aqua!’ See further n. 2 above.

¹⁷ Cf. Izaac ad loc, CGL V.635.49 ‘ludia, saltatrix’ and Forcellini's Lexicon s.v. The dictionaries of De Freund-Theil (Paris, 1853), Lewis and Short (Oxford, 1879), GafBot (Paris, 1934), Lebaigue (Paris, 1960) all give the meaning ‘an actress, a female stage-dancer’ for this passage, though in the two Juvenal passages to be discussed below, they interpret it as ‘a female gladiator’ and/or ‘a gladiator's wife or mistress’.

¹⁸ Cf. n. 17 above, D-S III 1379 s.v.ludius, Paley and Stone (1881)ad loc.

¹⁹ Piernavieja, P., ‘Ludia: un terme sportif latin chez Juvenal et Martial’, Latomus 31 (1972), 1037–40, accepted byGoogle ScholarVersnel, H.S., ‘A Parody on Hymns in Martial V 24 and some Trinitarian Problems’, Mnemosyne 27 (1974), 365–405, at 385, n. 88; cf. TLL s.v. ludia ‘cum contemptu de femina, quae ludos vel ludios amat’. Farnaby/Schrevel (1656) and Stephenson (1887) ad loc. vacillate between the first and second explanations.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁰ The following is an attempt to clarify Piernavieja's arguments, which are far from coherent.

²¹ Piernavieja (above, n. 19), p. 1037, observed the special attraction which gladiators held for women, especially members of the upper classes, comparing Petronius, Sat. 126 ‘harena aliquas accendit’ and Pompeian graffiti which attest the popularity of certain gladiators with the girls: CIL 4.4342 (‘suspirium puellarum/Tr./Celadus’), 4345 (‘puellarum decus/Celadus Tr.’), 4356 (Tr./Celadus, reti./Crescens/puparru domnus').

²² Courtney ad loc. refers to Eppia as a ‘gladiator's moll’, borrowing the phrase from Balsdon, J.P.V.D., Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome (London, 1969), p. 297. The translation is appropriate in the Juvenal passage, with its pejorative tone, but not elsewhere (Courtney compares Mart. 5.24). The same consideration rules out the rendering byGoogle ScholarScobie, A., ‘Spectator Security and Comfort at Gladiatorial Games’, Nikephoros 1 (1988), 201 of ludiae as ‘gladiators’ “groupies”’.Google Scholar

²³ Cf.Ville, G., La gladiature en Occident des origines a la mort de Domitien (Rome, 1981), p.330 and n. 225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁴ And indeed by attaching herself to his troupe: see lines 82–3 ‘nupta senatori comitata est Eppia ludum / ad Pharon …’.

²⁵ Cf.Robert, L., Les gladiateurs dans I Orient grec (Paris, 1940, repr. Amsterdam, 1971), p. 287, Balsdon (above, n. 22), p. 301,Google ScholarGrant, M., Gladiators (London, 1967), pp.92ff., Ville (above, n. 23), pp. 330, 334–9.Google Scholar

²⁶ The discovery in the gladiatorial barracks at Pompeii of a room with both a woman's skeleton and a jar containing the bones of an infant suggests that at least some ludiae lived with their partners as a family group. On this point, see further Robert (above, n. 25), p. 303, Scobie (above, n. 22), 191–244 at 201, Wiedemann, T., Emperors and Gladiators (London/New York, 1992), pp.114–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁷ Cf. Ville (above, n. 23), p. 329.

²⁸ Cf. Ville (above, n. 23), p. 330 n. 226, OLD s.v. ludia

²⁹ Ludia is explained, correctly, by the scholiast as ‘uxor gladiatoris’ and Asyli as ‘nomen gladiatoris’.

³⁰ It is not mentioned in TLL s.v., for instance, or in discussions of the term ludia in standard works on gladiators: we came upon it in Pearson's, J.Arena: The Story of the Colosseum (London, 1973), p.112 where, however, the first two words are mistranslated ‘modest Ludia.’Google Scholar

³¹ See Hollings, J.F., ‘Roman Leicester’, Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society Report (1855), 319–67, at 363 (═CIL 7.1335).Google Scholar

³² See Hollings (above, n. 31) for the suggestion that the fragment (which is perforated, as if to allow it to be worn as a pendant) served as a love token.

³³ The meaning ‘dancer, actress’ which some have assumed for the Martial passage (see above, n. 17) is not impossible here, though it would be unparalleled. Given that ludius can have a range of meanings, perhaps ludia could also (thus D-S, above, n. 18). In that case the inscription would be irrelevant to the Martial passage, since the context in Martial requires that ludiae have a close association with the gladiatorial schools. It would, however, still offer proof that the word is a technical term describing a profession and not, as Piernavieja argues, a derogatory one.

³⁴ Cf. the passages cited above, note 21; also Ville (above, n. 23), pp. 330–31, Balsdon (above, n. 22), p. 297, Wiedemann (above, n. 26), p. 26.

³⁵ E.g. Izaac (1930); Bridge and Lake (1908), ad loc.

³⁶ E.g.Piernavieja, Versnel (above, n. 19), Paley and Stone (1881); Stephenson (1887) takes labor as erotic.

³⁷ E.g. ‘cura deorum’ ═ ‘the object of concern [on the part] of the gods’: Ov.Met. 8.724, Stat. 5;7v. 4.2.15, Virg. Aen. 3.476.

³⁸ E.g. Virg.Ecl. 10.22, Hor.Od. 2.8.8, Ov.Am. 1.3.16.

³⁹ In his recent Loeb edition (1993).

⁴⁰ Farnaby's explanation, reproduced in the Delphin edition (London, 1822), that they are all in love with Hermes and consequently also fear for his safety, ill fits the emphasis elsewhere in the poem on Hermes' invincibility in combat.

⁴¹ See Versnel (above, n. 19), passim.

⁴² In addition, lines 9–10 go together, ‘divitiae locariorum’ (9) balancing ‘cura laborque ludiarum’: this structure works better if‘cura laborque’, like ’divitiae’, represents a single idea.

⁴³ Fraenkel, E., Horace (Oxford, 1957), p.219, n. 4.Google Scholar

* Addendum: P. Howell's edition of Book 5 (Warminster, 1995) translates ludiae as ‘female fans’.