`vənəl), fl. 1st to 2d cent. A.D., Roman satirical poet. His verse established a model for the satire of indignation, in contrast to the less harsh satire of ridicule of Horace. Little is known about his life except that during much of it he was desperately poor. A tradition tells that as a youth he was banished from court for satirizing an imperial favorite; later his work reveals a deep hatred for the Emperor Domitian. He is known chiefly for his 16 satires, which contain a vivid representation of life in Rome under the empire. They were probably written in the years between A.D. 100 and A.D. 128. The biting tone of his diatribes has seldom been equaled. From the stern point of view of the older Roman standards he powerfully denounces the lax and luxurious society, the brutal tyranny, the affectations and immorality of women, and the criminal excesses of Romans as he saw them, especially in his earlier years. The rhetorical form of his verse is finished, exact, and epigrammatic, furnishing many sayings that have become familiar through quotation.
Bibliography
See translations by R. Humphries (1958), G. G. Ramsay (rev ed. 1961), and P. Green (1967, repr. 1974); studies by I. G. Scott (1927), G. Highet (1955, repr. 1961); M. Coffey, Roman Satire (1976, 2d ed. 1989).
Juvenal
orig. Decimus Junius Juvenalis(born c. AD 55—died 130) Roman poet. He is believed to have been born into a wealthy family, to have become an army officer, and to have grown embittered by his failure to receive a promotion. He is chiefly known for his 16 Satires, indignant attacks on human brutality and folly, particularly the corruption of Roman society under Domitian and his more humane successors Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian. Juvenal's verses are technically fine, vivid, and often ruthless, and they have been admired and imitated since the 5th century. Many of his phrases and epigrams (“bread and circuses,” “who will guard the guards themselves?” etc.) have entered common parlance.
Juvenal
Juvenal
(full Latin name, Decimus Junius Juvenalis). Born circa AD. 60 in Aquinum, near Rome; died circa 127 in Egypt. Roman satiric poet.
Juvenal wrote 16 satires in five books; the last satire was left unfinished. The satires of the first three books are stinging denunciations of Roman society, while those of books four and five are more detached soliloquies on moral themes in the manner of Stoicism
Juvenal’s view of the world, presented from the vantage point of the little man, is pessimistic. He writes of the tyranny of emperors and the stupidity of the masses with equal bitterness. His satires are grimly accusatory in tone and characterized by numerous digressions and such striking turns of speech as “bread and circuses.” According to tradition, Juvenal died in exile.
PUBLICATIONS
Satirae. Edited by U. Knoche. Munich, 1950.In Russian translation:
Satiry. Moscow, 1888.
Satiry. Moscow-Leningrad, 1937.
REFERENCES
Istoriia rimskoi literatury. Edited by N. F. Deratani. Moscow, 1954.Highet, G. Juvenal the Satirist. Oxford, 1954.
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