Martial and His Books

Martial was trying to get across the point in the epigrams 1.38, 7.81, and 1.16 that books couldn't be flawless. Martial expresses in these epigrams that he knows that some of his poems are bad but in order to recognize the good poems you must first understand which poems are bad. This balance between good and bad poems make a book. Without a bad poem in a book the reader could think they were all bad. In order to ensure though that when writing your books isn't very bad is that you must have at least as many good poems as bad ones as Martial mentions to Lausus. Also as Martial says to Fidentinus, when you recite a book in a certain expression or add a phrase or two your changing the book and can no longer hold the author responsible for the new poem versions. Lastly Martial tells Avitus that there are all different types of books and that each appeals to different people, whether it be mediocre ones, evil ones, or good ones, each is unique to a specific audience.