Abstract

This note analyses the significance of the name Laelia in Martial 10.68. It is argued that the name evokes Laelia, wife of Scaevola Augur and mother-in-law of Crassus Orator, who was famed for her elegant Latin. The punch line of Martial’s epigram is that his Laelia, conversely to the above, speaks like the Greek prostitute Lais.