the things that do attain   
  The happy life be these, I find:—   
The riches left, not got with pain;   
  The fruitful ground, the quiet mind;   

The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;
  No charge of rule, nor governance;   
Without disease, the healthful life;   
  The household of continuance;

The mean diet, no delicate fare;   
  True wisdom join’d with simpleness;
The night dischargèd of all care,   
  Where wine the wit may not oppress.   

The faithful wife, without debate;   
  Such sleeps as may beguile the night:   
Contented with thine own estate
  Ne wish for death, ne fear his might.

Last edited by formby (2013-03-13 11:45:10)

Formby - as I am sure you know, the epigram has been translated many times, and this version sees the reference to 'toga rara' as an exhortation to avoid a 'charge of rule nor governance'. The translator read the reference to a 'toga' as a symbol for the business and government which Roman men habitually conducted in a toga. I think that there is quite a lot to be read into this. The custom of wearing the toga on certain occasions was a very firm one and firm enough for it to become a symbol of the business and government, conducted in it, themselves. Therefore, the encouragement to the idividual is away from the conduct of such business and government and towards the leisured, rural life (we know that it was rural life that he had in mind because of the reference to productive land). The equivalent symbol in our recent times has been 'the suit' (often businessmen, professionals and politicians have been derided as 'Suits'). However, the Suit is no longer such a strong symbol in relation to these categories of people because, as is often said, many people don't wear suits anymore; even for the business and government for which Romans would invariably have worn the toga. I am sure that Martial did not mean 'avoid the toga even when conducting business and government' because, such a breach of custom would have been unthinkable to him. The form of the toga was an expectation and a backdrop to business and government; just a form, I accept but, nonetheless, I wonder to what extent the sloughing off of 'form' in dress, in our own times, leads to the increasing slackness of (say) tee-shirt and jeans-clad bank clerks in 'call centres', effectively frustrating our attempts to deal with them. I know that some people will say that the point is 'silly' but I am truly not so sure about that. Moderns increasingly go to work in casual clothes and, maybe, they end up treating their jobs in the same casual way and attach less importance both to their own roles and their customers than their predecessors did thirty years ago.

However, I am with the sentiments of the epigram (as I interpret them) and have been for some time now!

Hep -

Nice piece of which I was not aware. Thanks.

NJS

Last edited by NJS (2013-03-14 10:23:05)