VI. Juvenal

Abstract

Of the surviving Roman satirists, Juvenal is the one we know least about. Whereas for Horace and Persius we have ancient biographies which are of early date and seem generally reliable, the biographies of Juvenal are of later date and essentially contain only ‘information’ drawn from the Satires. Failure to appreciate Juvenal’s use of a satiric persona renders these biographies worthless.Thus there is little to be said about the life and circumstances of Decimus Iunius Iuuenalis. He is the addressee of three epigrams of Martial, his younger contemporary, who calls him ‘eloquent’; certainly the Satires reflect the rhetorical training received by the Roman élite. The fact that his Satires are not dedicated to any patron may indicate that he was of relatively high social status, rather like Lucilius and Persius and in contrast with Horace. His sixteen Satires, of which the last breaks off in a patently unfinished state, are arranged in five books and it seems certain that they were published thus. The few datable references in the Satires suggest that the first two books were written in the second decade of the second century A.D., either towards the end of Trajan’s reign (A.D. 98–117) or, possibly, not until Hadrian’s accession. The third book appears to have been written early in Hadrian’s reign (A.D. 117–138) and the fifth book dates from after A.D. 127. It seems, then, that he was writing his Satires at about the same time as Tacitus was writing his Annals, which strike the modern reader as so alike in their biting tone.