In keeping with his « persona » of mendicant poet, Martial appropriates themes regarding Maecenas ' patronage that had begun to take shape in the previous generation (Calpurnius Siculus, ecl. 4, 158-163 ; Laus Pisonis 230-248). Martial (7, 29, 7-8 ; 8, 55 [ 56 ], 21-24) adds Domitius Marsus to the list of clients.
In fact, no other evidence connects Domitius Marsus to Maecenas, though it is not surprising that Martial would fabricate a relationship between a patron of Roman literary talent and a pioneer of Latin epigram as a way of solidifying respectability for the genre of epigram.
