Man, Martial rules.  The little I know about Roman satirists, I like.  Martial has the same combination of mean wit and hilarious vulgarity that makes people like Catallus, Donne, Rochester, Pope, and Auden so funny.  Reading him, you can sense the line of comic poetry that runs from the classical world through English literature, and the glory of which is the couplet.  I would post some snipes on here, but it would probably be easier for you to just visit the Amazon preview of Garry Wills’ bad-ass new translation.

-TGR