Theatre, Spectacle, and the Satirist in Juvenal

Abstract

BESIDES HIS FAMOUS POSTURE OF INDIGNATIO, Juvenal's most notable contribution the genre of Roman satire is colorful, sustained narrative of human activities. In Horace and Persius, stories and tableaux are relatively brief and ancillary dialogues and monologues, but Juvenal takes us with ceremony the streets of Rome, the homes of the great, and even foreign parts, show us what he is attacking. At 1.63-64Juvenal encourages us think of him standing on a street-corner, watching the depraved world go by, and scribbling furiously. Even his more focused accounts of specific events or lists of exempla, such as the council on Domitian's big fish (Satire 4), the parade of foolish human prayers (10), and the cannibalistic battle in Egypt (15), showcase theatrical narrative and tableau description more than the satire of his predecessors does. As the survey of Schmitz (2000: 20-34) indicates, Juvenal's emphasis on the visual suggests the influence of theatre and spectacle. The satirists who preceded Juvenal cultivated a programmatic connection with literary drama, especially comic drama. Horace situates his Sermones in the comic family tree (1.4);1 Persius invokes Horace's claim that satire is related Old Comedy (1.123-124), and also figures his authorial role as speech-writing (1.44). Similarly, Juvenal likens his satire drama, broadly construed, when he refers one subject as a character whom he must often summon to play his part