From Inheritors, Envious People, and Gossipers

Böhmermann is mean? Read Martial! If there's an ancient Roman who can compete with today's sharpest satirists, it's him. His verses pack a punch, and hardly anyone in his circle comes out unscathed. Cowards, freeloaders, vain individuals, and frauds are ruthlessly exposed, but he also targets groups of people who today – and rightly so – no one dares to mock anymore. Karl-Wilhelm Weeber shows that antiquity operated differently. However, the fact that Martial spared no group of people has at least one advantage: we see the society of ancient Rome as it truly was.