439 MAR 
MAR'THA (St.), a bay on the weft coaft of the ifiand 
of Curagoa. 
MAR'THA (St.), or Sier'ra Neve'da, a very high 
mountain in New Spain. Some fay it is one hundred 
miles in circumference at the bottom, and five miles in 
height. The top is always covered with fnow in the hot¬ 
ted weather ; and the French affirm, that they can per¬ 
ceive it from the ifiand of St. Domingo, which is 370 
miles diftant. Lat. 8. o. N. Ion. 74. 35. W. 
MAR'THA BRA'E, a harbour and village in Jamaica. 
Lat. 18. 31. N. Ion. 77. 32. W. See Falmouth, vol. vii. 
p. 205. 
MAR'THA’s VIN'EYARD, an ifiand in the Atlantic, 
near the coaft of New England, belonging to Duke’s 
county, Maffiachufetts, called by the Indians Nope, or 
Capawock, lying between lat. 40. 17. and 41. 29. N. and be¬ 
tween Ion. 70. 22. and 70. 50. W. of Nantucket; about 
twenty-one miles in length, and fix in breadth. The in¬ 
habitants fubfift by agriculture and fifhing. Cattle and 
fheep are raifed here in great numbers; and rye, corn, and 
oats, are the chief produce of the ifiand. White pipe-clay 
and yellow and red ochre are found in Martha’s Vineyard. 
See Duke’s County, vol. vi. p. ii2. 
MAR'THALON, a town of SwifiTerland, in the canton 
of Zurich : five miles fouth of SchafFhaufen. 
MAR'THON, a town of France, in the department of 
the Charente : nine miles fouth of La Rochefoucauld, 
and twelve eaft of Angoulefme. 
M AR'TIA, a woman’s name ; the name of feveral Ro¬ 
man ladies. 
MAR'TIA A'QUA, water at Rome, celebrated for its 
cleanlinefs and falubrity. It was conveyed to Rome, at 
the diftance of above thirty miles, from the lake Fucinus, 
by Ancus Martius, wdience it received its name. Tibull. iii. 
El. 7. 
MARTIA'GO, a town of Spain, in the province of 
Leon : ten miles fouth of Civdad Rodrigo. 
MAR'TIAL, adj. [Fr. from martialis, Lat.] Warlike; 
fighting; given to war; brave.— It hath feldom been feen, 
that the far fouthern people have invaded the northern, 
but contrariwife; whereby it is manifelt, that the northern 
tract of the world is the more martial region.’ Bacon, 
Into my feeble breaft 
Come gently, but not with that mighty rage 
Wherewith the martial troopes thou dolt infeft, 
And hearts of great heroes dolt enrage. Fairy Oueen. 
Having a warlike fiiow ; fuiting war : 
When our country’s caufe provokes to arms. 
How martial mufic every bofom warms ! Pope. 
Belonging to war; not civil ; not according to the rules 
or practice of peaceable government.—They proceeded in 
a kind of martial juftice with enemies, offering them their 
law before they drew their fword. JSaccw.-—Borrowing qua¬ 
lities from the planet Mars.—The natures of the fixed Itars 
are aftrologically differenced by the planets, and efteemed 
martial or jovial according to the colours whereby they an- 
fwer thefe planets. Brown. —Having parts or properties of 
iron, which is called Mars by the chemilts. 
Martial Law, the law of war, that depends upon the 
arbitrary pou'er and pleafure cf the king, or his lieute¬ 
nant; for, though the king doth not make any laws but 
by common confent in parliament, yet in time of war, by 
reafon of the neceffity of it, to guard againft dangers that 
often arife, he ui’eth abfolute power, fo that his word is a 
law. This power, however, is now regulated by adt of 
parliament. See the word Army, vol. ii. p. 204, 5. 
Court Martial, vol. v. p. 303,4. and, for more recent 
regulations, the article London, vol. xiii. p. 142, 246, 284. 
MAR'TIAL, f. A warrior ; a fighter : 
The queen of martials 
And Mars himl’elf, conducted them. Ckapman, 
MAR'TIAL. Marcus Valerius Martialis, a diftinguifhed 
Latin epigrammatic poet, was a native of Eiibilis in Spain, 
MAR 
a town fituated in the Provincia Tarraconenfis, the mo¬ 
dern Arragon. He was probably of Roman origin; but 
be had his education in his native country, and did not 
come to Rome till his twenty-firft year. He was fent thi- 
.ther to purfue the ftudy of the law ; but he proved to be 
one of the many deferters from the legal profeffion to the 
mufes. His fuccefs in poetry ingratiated him with the 
principal literary characters then in Rome, and procured 
him imperial patronage. It mult be confeffed that for the 
latter he did not truft folely to the merit of his verfes; for 
no-where can be found more grofs and impious adulation 
than he has beftowed upon Domitian while living, though 
after his death he joined the public voice, which treated 
him as amonfter. He was rewarded by that prince with 
the rank of a Roman knight, and the privileges of a fa¬ 
ther of three children. After an abode of thirty-four 
years in the capital of the empire, in which he feems to 
have raifed a high reputation by his writings, he retired 
to his native place, apparently little improved in his for¬ 
tune; fince Pliny the younger, as we learn from a letter 
of his, affifted him with money for his journey. But at 
Bilbilis he married a wife, and had the happinefs to live 
with her feveral years. He admires and commends her 
much, telling her that file alone was fufficient to fupply 
the want of every thing he enjoyed at Rome : “ Roman: tu 
mi hi Jola facisf fays he, in the 21ft epigram of the 12 th 
book. She appears likewife to have been a lady of a large 
fortune ; for, in the 31ft epigram of the fame book, he 
extols the magnificence of the houfe and gardens he had 
received from her, and fays that file had made him a kind 
of little monarch : 
Munera funt domino 1 pojl feptima lujlra reverfo , 
Has Marcella domos, parvaque regna dedit. 
Martial died in the 104th year of the Chriftian era, in 
the feventy-fiftb year of his age. He is without doubt 
the molt eminent of the epigrammatifts ; indeed he is to 
the moderns alinolt the foie model of that fpecies of com- 
pofition, as diftinguifhed by the unexpected turn or point 
with which it concludes. It has been obferved of Martial, 
that his talent was epigrams. Everything he did was the 
fubjedt of an epigram. He wrote infcriptions upon mo¬ 
numents in the epigrammatic fiyle, and even a new-year’s 
gift was accompanied with a diftich ; and his poetical pen 
was employed in begging a favour as well as fatirizing a 
fault. In the valt number of his epigrams, compoiing 
fourteen books, it is not to be wondered at that many are 
quaint, flat, or puerile ; there are, however, fo many good, 
that his own charadterof them, Sunt bona,funt qucedam medio~ 
cria,/unt mala plura, (Some good, fome middling, but more 
bad,) is fufficiently model!. Many of them are beautiful 
fhort copies of verfes, though void of point; and fcarcely 
any of the Roman poets have given better models of ele¬ 
gant latfnity. The great fault of this writer is the obfce- 
nity of fo many of his pieces, which is not, like Juvenal’s, 
a mere want of delicacy, but premeditated licentioufnefs. 
It is, however, to be imputed to the general diffolutenefs 
of manners in that particular; for the juft and dignified 
fentiments which frequently break out in his compofitions 
prove him to have been far from deficient in moral feel¬ 
ings on other topics. The abundance of allufions to modes 
and cuftoms in his works, renders them a very inftruftive 
ftudy to the claffical antiquary. 
The editions of Martial are numerous. Some of the 
belt are, Langii, folio, Par. 1617 ; Scriverii, 121110. Lugd. 
Bat. i6rp ; Schrevelii, 8vo. Lugd. Bat. 1670; Baitigeri, 
3 vols. 8vo, Lips. 179—. There are feveral caltigated 
editions, and felecfions, for the ufe of fchools ; and trans¬ 
lations of feleft parts of the Epigrams have been repeat¬ 
edly publilhed ; but at length, in the year 1782, Mr. 
James Elphinfton printed, by fubfcription, a complete 
tranflation, with a Preface and a very laborious Comment. 
In this tranflation, the fourteen books are reduced to 
twelve, by a new arrangement. Tranfiators and commen¬ 
tators are commonly great admirers of the authors upon 
whom they bellow their labours; and this is extremely 
natural. 
