The Satires of Juvenal and Persius

Productinformatie

From LIFE OF JUVENAL.
(From Smith's Dictionary of Biography)
Decimus Junius Juvenalis, according to his ancient biographers, was either the son or the ''alumnus'' of a rich freedman. These same authorities re late that he was born at the Volscian town of Aquinum; that he occupied himself, until he had nearly reached the term of middle age, in declaiming; that, having subsequently composed some clever lines upon Paris, the pantomime, he was induced to cultivate assiduously satirical composition; and that, in consequence of his attacks upon Paris becoming known to the court, the poet, although now an old man of eighty, was appointed to the command of a body of troops in a remote district of Egypt, where he died shortly afterward. It is supposed by some that the Paris who, according to these old biographers, was attacked by Juvenal, was the contemporary of Domitian, and that the poet was accordingly banished by this emperor. But this opinion is clearly untenable: 1. We know that Paris was killed in A.D. 83, upon suspicion of an intrigue with the Empress Domitia. 2. The Fourth Satire, as appears from the concluding lines, was written after the death of Domitian—that is, not earlier than A.D. 96. 3. The First Satire, as we learn from the forty-ninth line, was written after the condemnation of Marius Priscus—that is, not earlier than A.D. 100. These positions admit of no doubt, and hence it is established that Juvenal was alive at least seventeen years after the death of Paris, and that some of his Satires were composed after the death of Domitian.
The only facts with regard to Juvenal upon which we can implicitly rely are, that he flourished toward the close of the first century; that Aquinum, if not the place of his nativity, was at least his chosen residence; and that he is, in all probability, the friend whom Martial addresses in three epigrams. There is perhaps another circumstance which we may admit. We are told that he declaimed for many years of his life, and every page in his writings bears evidence to the accuracy of this assertion. Every piece is a finished rhetorical essay, energetic, glowing, and sonorous. He denounces vice in the most indignant terms; but the obvious tone of exaggeration which pervades all his invectives leaves us in doubt how far this sustained passion is real, and how far assumed for mere show. The extant works of Juvenal consist of sixteen Satires, the last being a fragment of doubtful authenticity, all composed in heroic hexameters.