Martial 1.86: His neighbour Novius.

My neighbours, a young couple, who did just finish their studies, will move to another house. We have a common path to our adjacent front doors and in summertime we drink together wine in front of our houses. It is a pity that they will go away, as I wonder whether I will have such neighbours again. Martial too had a neighbour when he lived in Rome, but he never saw him. Martial probably lived then at an insula (flat) at the third floor and his neighbour at the insula opposite to his. As the streets of Rome were very narrow, one could almost shake hands. With the dense population of Rome, these insulae were often overcrowded and collapsing or fire was not that uncommon. Though there was some basic sanitation – except for the upper floors – I guess that the stench must have been unbearable in summer.

Martial is complaining that he never sees his neighbour Novius. There was a good reason for people not being at home in the evening: it was normal to invite people for dinner, that is to say for the middle and upper class, not for the overwhelming mass of plebs who lived on minimal sustenance. The very fact that Martial never sees his neighbour means that Novius never invited people back.

I really hope I will get a better neighbour!

Meter hendecasyllabic:

x x  - u u -  u - u - -    

(where x x is either - u or - -  or u -)

Martial 1.86

Vicinus meus est manuque tangi

de nostris Nouius potest fenestris.

Quis non inuideat mihi putetque

horis omnibus esse me beatum,

iuncto cui liceat frui sodale?              5

Tam longe est mihi quam Terentianus,

qui nunc Niliacam regit Syenen.

Non conuiuere, nec uidere saltem,

non audire licet, nec urbe tota

quisquam est tam prope tam proculque nobis.              10

Migrandum est mihi longius uel illi.

Vicinus Nouio uel inquilinus

sit, si quis Nouium uidere non uolt.

Vicinus meus est manuque tangi de nostris Nouius potest fenestris = Vicinus meus Nouius est manuque tangi de nostris fenestris potest.

vicinus: neighbour

invideo (+ dat.): to be envious of

horis omnibus: abl. of time `all day long’

iuncto cui liceat frui sodale: for whom it is free to enjoy (uti + abl.) a next door (iuncto) fellow (The idea is that Novius must be very popular, as he is invited by everyone, so he must be a pleasant fellow. Martial has other ideas….)

Tam longe est mihi quam: he is that far away from me as

Syene: modern Assouan in Egypt, the name is also used in the same way like we use Timbuktu (I found this information in Flewett & Pantin, A first book of Latin poetry, where this poem is discussed. They also refer to Afghanistan as a name for some faraway country, but this book was published in 1943 and nowadays Afghanistan has quite other connotations…)

Non conuiuere, nec uidere saltem,

non audire licet, nec urbe tota

quisquam est tam prope tam proculque nobis.

I have not the pleasure (licet mihi) to dine (convivere) (with him), nor even (saltem) to see or hear (him), and not is there anyone else in town so near (prope) and sofar away (procul) from us.

Migrandum est mihi longius uel illi: i.e. if they want to see each other

longius: further away

inquilinus: inhabitant of the same house (from in-colo)

volt = vult

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insula_%28building%29

This picture is taken from:                                          

http://www.mmdtkw.org/ALRIAncRomUnit9Slides.html

Novius is my neighbour, and can be touched by

the hand from my windows. Who would not envy

me, and think me every hour of the day happy in

being able to enjoy so close a comrade ? He is as

far from me as Terentianus who now governs Syene

on the Nile. I can't dine with him, nor even see

him or hear him, and in all the city there is no man

who is so near and yet so far from me. I must

shift farther, or he must. You should be Novius's

neighbour, or fellow-lodger, if you don't wish to see

Novius.

(WALTER C. A. KER, M.A. from the Loeb edtion 1916.)