This chapter pins down the history of satirical epigram in the Graeco-Roman world, from the IV century BC to the II century AD. The chapter explores the emergence of skoptic epigram with the Greek epigrammatists Lucillius and Nicarchus in the imperial era and its development in the corpus of Martial, the capstone of Graeco-Roman epigram. By inheriting key features of his Greek predecessors and re-inventing Catullus’ nugae, Martial transforms the epigrammatic genre into the pointed, concise, and witty poetic form with which we are familiar today. The chapter extends novel considerations to irony and satire as negotiated in Pompeian graffiti in relation to Martial’s oeuvre.