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Juvenal and Persius
THIS EDITION HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A NEWER EDITION Juvenal, Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (ca. AD 60–140), master of satirical hexameter poetry, was born at Aquinum. He used his powers in the composition first of scathing satires on Roman life, with special reference to ineptitude in poetry (Satire 1); vices of fake philosophers (2); grievances of the worthy poor (3); and of clients (5); a council-meeting under Emperor Domitian (4); vicious women (6); prospects of letters and learning under a new emperor (7); virtue not birth as giving nobility (8); and the vice of homosexuals (9). Then subjects and tone we have the true object of prayer (10); spendthrift and frugal eating (11); a friend's escape from shipwreck; will-hunters (12); guilty conscience and desire for revenge (13); parents as examples (14); cannibalism in Egypt (15); privileges of soldiers (16, unfinished). Persius Flaccus, Aulus (AD 34–62), of Volaterrae was of equestrian rank; he went to Rome and was trained in grammar, rhetoric, and Stoic philosophy. In company with his mother, sister and aunt, and enjoying the friendship of Lucan and other famous people, he lived a sober life. He left six Satires in after a prologue (in scazon metre) we have a Satire on the corruption of literature and morals (1); foolish methods of prayer (2); deliberately wrong living and lack of philosophy (3); the well-born insincere politician, and some of our own weaknesses (4); praise of Cornutus the Stoic; servility of men (5); and a chatty poem addressed to the poet Bassus (6).
560 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 132
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232 people want to read
About the author
G.P. Goold
27 books4 followersGeorge P. Goold was an internationally renowned classicist. During a career that spanned over half a century, Professor Goold served as the chair of the classics departments at three major universities -- Harvard (1971-1972), University College, London (1973-1978) and Yale (1984-1987). He was the chief editor of the Loeb Classical Library series for 25 years.
Professor Goold focused his research on the editing of Latin texts and Homeric studies. Later in his career, he was deeply involved in a project to create a computer program known as IBYCUS, which is designed for researchers in the classics and religious studies.
Born in London in 1922, Mr. Goold joined the Royal Air Force when World War II broke out. He was assigned to the Air Intelligence branch and worked with groups at Bletchley Park that broke German codes. After the war, he received both his bachelor's degree and his doctorate from University College, London, and then began his teaching career at University College, Hull.
His first appointment in the United States, to Harvard in 1965, followed tenures at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and the Universities of Manitoba and Toronto in Canada.
Professor Goold returned to England in 1973 to teach at his alma mater, where he was elected Chair of Latin, a post that had earlier been held by A.E. Housman, whom Goold greatly admired. He joined the Yale faculty in 1977, where he taught until retiring in 1992. He delivered the Gray Lectures in the University of Cambridge in 1987 and held distinguished visiting professorships at Stanford University and the University of Victoria in Canada.
Professor Goold's scholarly publications spanned the second half of the 20th century and embraced the major Latin poets. His 100-page discussion of the text of Ovid's erotic verse (1965) is perhaps his best known paper. He edited a book on "Catullus" (with notes and translation) and produced Loeb editions of Propertius, the Greek novelist Chariton, and of the astronomical poet Marcus Manilius. His study of the latter made him an expert guide to the night sky. Professor Goold also published many articles, including ones on Homer, Ovid, Propertius and Servius.
Professor Goold is credited with transforming the Loeb Classical Library from a reference of last resort to a model of modern scholarship. The series, established in 1910, prints English translations opposite Greek and Latin texts. Widely known to English-speaking students of classical languages and literatures, the Loeb series was "frowned on in the days when students were expected to translate Latin and Greek themselves," according to Professor Goold's successor as editor, Jeffrey Henderson. But under Professor Goold's stewardship, the series took on an enhanced respectability among scholars as new translations of Sophocles, Euripides, Euripides, Marcus Valerius Martialis and others were produced. Goold also revised some of the volumes himself, including one on Virgil. In the years before his death he was working on a volume on Greek novelist Heliodorus of Emesa.
Zeph Stewart, a trustee of the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, attributed the growing stature of the series to Goold's "judicious editorial policies, vast knowledge of Greek and Latin languages and literatures, refined sense of style and meticulous attention to detail."
The Yale classicist was elected president of the American Philological Association in 1986 and was elected a corresponding fellow of the British Academy in 1994. Professor Goold achieved his greatest renown as a philologist.
Professor Goold became an American citizen and spent his years after retiring from Yale at his home in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
Professor Goold focused his research on the editing of Latin texts and Homeric studies. Later in his career, he was deeply involved in a project to create a computer program known as IBYCUS, which is designed for researchers in the classics and religious studies.
Born in London in 1922, Mr. Goold joined the Royal Air Force when World War II broke out. He was assigned to the Air Intelligence branch and worked with groups at Bletchley Park that broke German codes. After the war, he received both his bachelor's degree and his doctorate from University College, London, and then began his teaching career at University College, Hull.
His first appointment in the United States, to Harvard in 1965, followed tenures at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and the Universities of Manitoba and Toronto in Canada.
Professor Goold returned to England in 1973 to teach at his alma mater, where he was elected Chair of Latin, a post that had earlier been held by A.E. Housman, whom Goold greatly admired. He joined the Yale faculty in 1977, where he taught until retiring in 1992. He delivered the Gray Lectures in the University of Cambridge in 1987 and held distinguished visiting professorships at Stanford University and the University of Victoria in Canada.
Professor Goold's scholarly publications spanned the second half of the 20th century and embraced the major Latin poets. His 100-page discussion of the text of Ovid's erotic verse (1965) is perhaps his best known paper. He edited a book on "Catullus" (with notes and translation) and produced Loeb editions of Propertius, the Greek novelist Chariton, and of the astronomical poet Marcus Manilius. His study of the latter made him an expert guide to the night sky. Professor Goold also published many articles, including ones on Homer, Ovid, Propertius and Servius.
Professor Goold is credited with transforming the Loeb Classical Library from a reference of last resort to a model of modern scholarship. The series, established in 1910, prints English translations opposite Greek and Latin texts. Widely known to English-speaking students of classical languages and literatures, the Loeb series was "frowned on in the days when students were expected to translate Latin and Greek themselves," according to Professor Goold's successor as editor, Jeffrey Henderson. But under Professor Goold's stewardship, the series took on an enhanced respectability among scholars as new translations of Sophocles, Euripides, Euripides, Marcus Valerius Martialis and others were produced. Goold also revised some of the volumes himself, including one on Virgil. In the years before his death he was working on a volume on Greek novelist Heliodorus of Emesa.
Zeph Stewart, a trustee of the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, attributed the growing stature of the series to Goold's "judicious editorial policies, vast knowledge of Greek and Latin languages and literatures, refined sense of style and meticulous attention to detail."
The Yale classicist was elected president of the American Philological Association in 1986 and was elected a corresponding fellow of the British Academy in 1994. Professor Goold achieved his greatest renown as a philologist.
Professor Goold became an American citizen and spent his years after retiring from Yale at his home in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 13, 2016
Only my own Latin prevents my fifth star. After years with Juvenal, now Persius, my translation of his Prolog included in my new long poem, Parodies Lost:
"Not along the lonely beaches, nor
From scenery and mountain views, do I
Remember brooding to become a writer.
The beaches and the lonely looks, I leave
To pictures on the backs of books."
Perseus asks, in Satire I, Who'll read such stuff as "Ah, the vanity of human life!" His satires are conversational, ranging from new citizens who know nothing of Roman Law, to a discussion with his Stoic mentor and friend Cornutus in Satire V. When Latin poets, like Lucretius, write of Nature's laws, they're expanding on Roman Law. Reason suggests the unskilled should not be allowed to do what they will mar by doing (V.95ff).
Then there's Juvenal, perhaps even greater stuff, producing 18C lexicographer and literary biographer Samuel Johnson's greatest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes, a fine adapted metaphrase of Juvenal Satire X, which is also the best literary comment on the US Presidential primaries 2016--war debt having destroyed Carter (and George W).
"Yet Reason frowns on War's unequal game,
Where wasted nations raise a single name,
And mortgaged states their grandsires' wreaths regret
From age to age in everlasting debt."(SamJ, 185ff)
"How nations sink…When Vengeance listens to the fool's request"(SJ, 15). Johnson also emphasizes the futility of eloquence, though he cuts the attendant wealth of Seneca, confiscated (Juv. X.xvi).
Starting with my comment on Goodreads about Sam Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes, appropriate to our election, I've continued a bit in XI (Extravagance vs abstinence) and XIII. Here's what I told a friend on GoodReads:
"You doubtless know that the best, immortal rendition of Juvenal X is Sam Johnson's, 1749, "Vanity of human wishes" including, the needy /penniless traveller whistles at the thief, and lives," as well as lines that sum up my life:
"When first the college rolls receive his name,
The young enthusiast quits his ease for fame;
Resistless burns the fever of renown,
Caught from the strong contagion of the gown:"
Remarkably, Johnson adapts Juvenal's hexameters (dactyllic) into rhymed couplets pentameters. Perhaps his most famous line* is on the desire of long life (though mediated now by drugs):
"Enlarge my life with multitude of days,--**
In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays,
Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know
* That life protracted is protracted woe."
SJ improves Juvenal here, who only has "how much longer life, the
more ills." However, now people can live into their 90s quite well--like my doctoral advisor's wife, Mrs. Leonard Unger.
Juvenal's dactylls are also neat,
** "Da spatium vitae, multos da, Iuppiter, annos"
Give me length of life, Jupiter, many years…" I memorized this one line of verse this week (May '16), dactyllic hexameter Latin. But more ills in longer life has actually changed, through drugs and regimens. Both Johnson and Juvenal talk about diminished eyesight and taste, while Juvenal alone, 9 explicit lines on sexual decline, pre-Cialis.
In Satire XI, Juvenal excoriates gluttons who eat up their inheritance, and even borrow Roman money which they also consume (literally) and abscond to Baia's oyster-beds, near where I lived one summer at Villa Vergilliana, Cuma. Juvenal offers a near-vegetarian feast from his Tibur (Tivoli) farm (in tetrameters)--excepting a milk-fed baby goat:
"A kid who's filled with milk, not blood;
Asparagus from hilltop, and not cold,
Warm eggs from straw, grapes from the vine,
With Syrian pears, cool apples like wine,
Cooled to prevent a burning heart."
Satire XIV discusses parental behavior as a model to the young--if they gamble, the kids will, etc.
Satire XVI, the last, is only half finished, but on the subject of Roman military privilege, especially in property -- less true for US military officers who may perhaps retire at 45 to their yachts in South Carolina, small recompense for risking their lives. (But what recompense have teachers for risking theirs-- among gun-totin' kids)?
"Not along the lonely beaches, nor
From scenery and mountain views, do I
Remember brooding to become a writer.
The beaches and the lonely looks, I leave
To pictures on the backs of books."
Perseus asks, in Satire I, Who'll read such stuff as "Ah, the vanity of human life!" His satires are conversational, ranging from new citizens who know nothing of Roman Law, to a discussion with his Stoic mentor and friend Cornutus in Satire V. When Latin poets, like Lucretius, write of Nature's laws, they're expanding on Roman Law. Reason suggests the unskilled should not be allowed to do what they will mar by doing (V.95ff).
Then there's Juvenal, perhaps even greater stuff, producing 18C lexicographer and literary biographer Samuel Johnson's greatest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes, a fine adapted metaphrase of Juvenal Satire X, which is also the best literary comment on the US Presidential primaries 2016--war debt having destroyed Carter (and George W).
"Yet Reason frowns on War's unequal game,
Where wasted nations raise a single name,
And mortgaged states their grandsires' wreaths regret
From age to age in everlasting debt."(SamJ, 185ff)
"How nations sink…When Vengeance listens to the fool's request"(SJ, 15). Johnson also emphasizes the futility of eloquence, though he cuts the attendant wealth of Seneca, confiscated (Juv. X.xvi).
Starting with my comment on Goodreads about Sam Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes, appropriate to our election, I've continued a bit in XI (Extravagance vs abstinence) and XIII. Here's what I told a friend on GoodReads:
"You doubtless know that the best, immortal rendition of Juvenal X is Sam Johnson's, 1749, "Vanity of human wishes" including, the needy /penniless traveller whistles at the thief, and lives," as well as lines that sum up my life:
"When first the college rolls receive his name,
The young enthusiast quits his ease for fame;
Resistless burns the fever of renown,
Caught from the strong contagion of the gown:"
Remarkably, Johnson adapts Juvenal's hexameters (dactyllic) into rhymed couplets pentameters. Perhaps his most famous line* is on the desire of long life (though mediated now by drugs):
"Enlarge my life with multitude of days,--**
In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays,
Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know
* That life protracted is protracted woe."
SJ improves Juvenal here, who only has "how much longer life, the
more ills." However, now people can live into their 90s quite well--like my doctoral advisor's wife, Mrs. Leonard Unger.
Juvenal's dactylls are also neat,
** "Da spatium vitae, multos da, Iuppiter, annos"
Give me length of life, Jupiter, many years…" I memorized this one line of verse this week (May '16), dactyllic hexameter Latin. But more ills in longer life has actually changed, through drugs and regimens. Both Johnson and Juvenal talk about diminished eyesight and taste, while Juvenal alone, 9 explicit lines on sexual decline, pre-Cialis.
In Satire XI, Juvenal excoriates gluttons who eat up their inheritance, and even borrow Roman money which they also consume (literally) and abscond to Baia's oyster-beds, near where I lived one summer at Villa Vergilliana, Cuma. Juvenal offers a near-vegetarian feast from his Tibur (Tivoli) farm (in tetrameters)--excepting a milk-fed baby goat:
"A kid who's filled with milk, not blood;
Asparagus from hilltop, and not cold,
Warm eggs from straw, grapes from the vine,
With Syrian pears, cool apples like wine,
Cooled to prevent a burning heart."
Satire XIV discusses parental behavior as a model to the young--if they gamble, the kids will, etc.
Satire XVI, the last, is only half finished, but on the subject of Roman military privilege, especially in property -- less true for US military officers who may perhaps retire at 45 to their yachts in South Carolina, small recompense for risking their lives. (But what recompense have teachers for risking theirs-- among gun-totin' kids)?
March 31, 2012
5 stars for the satires, 3 stars for the translation: many verses are censored
April 4, 2016
Great new text and translation, making even the notoriously difficult Persius almost approachable.
January 7, 2021
Juvenal's Satires are some of the most accessible and entertaining texts that have come down to us from classical antiquity. They derive from an early period of Imperial Rome, over a century after the fall of the Republic. These Satires could at times be mistaken for sermons, but these are clearly pagan sermons--exposing, denouncing, and in the last analysis celebrating the liberty and vice of Rome at the height of Roman power.
This is a review for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard) edition of 2004. Most of the Loeb editions include translations from the early 20th century, so in those terms this version features an up-to-date translation. The Latin text is on the left hand page and the translation is facing on the right. Textual variants are footnoted on the left, allusions to historical or sociocultural people places and things are footnoted on the right. The Latin text of Juvenal's Satires is frequently vulgar and obscene, and the modernness and honesty of Braund's translation brings out the true rawness of these caricatures of 'modern' depravity. These pages show 'modern' times for the Romans, and yet they are clearly relevant to our clear understanding of the visceral and libertine ethos of our own 'modern' (liberal, imperial, stratified) society. Although Satires was composed with erudition and insight, many critics of these texts show that clearly the reader is being lied to throughout by Juvenal. Juvenal speaks through a distinct persona, from behind a mask, showing us uncensored possible worlds. Juvenal's Satires are variously construed from the perspective of an unseen spectator, or from the point of view of a performing satirical actor (a true 'Satyr'). Juvenal plays a degenerate bringing to light degeneracy, a degenrate who is being tried in the court of opinion, one which was also the court of Imperial entertainment. These texts range from (feigned?) misogyny and homophobia to (the ribbing of) sanctimonious conservatism. Perhaps not recognizing the irony, it was the ascetic monks and priests of the Middle Ages who preserved these texts as evidence of...well, pre-Christian error. Hence quite a bit of ironic sermonizing has been preserved. But the modern reader still feels encouraged to read on, enticed by this world of libertine pleasures and pagan abandon. The reader today is released from any attempt to take these words (sermones) seriously. Juvenal's Satires were meant to be funny, not pious.
Here are some specific illustrations from Juvenal's (and Braund's) work:
Juvenal dwells on many of Rome's problems—the problems of being a grand metropolis, the problems of being a new kind of society with a unique culture, even the problems that come from the amassing of obscene quantities of wealth. But this is not intended to be an exercise in cultural voyeurism. Juvenal ultimately provides sound advise on the right way to live. I will address these problems in turn and then briefly summarize Juvenal's existential solution.
Rome was a city, as grand as there ever was, that managed to get by without electric light or a police force. Juvenal vividly depicts the noise, crime, pollution, shortages, debt, and ethnic diversity that made Rome a hell for many. Today's concerns about multi-culturalism and uncontrollable immigration could easily be read off these ancient pages. After long distance trade and travel were both made possible throughout the Roman Empire, an unprecedented confluence of commodities and cultures poured into the capital, leading poets of all stripes to wonder if the monoglot and homogeneous Rome of the Republic was truly gone for good.
The times they were a-changing. The ethnology or ethnography of Rome as begun in Roman satire could not help but notice how the city was changing socially. There are references to men marrying men and the military rank and file freaking about gays in the military. The classical pattern of hetero marriage and love was being upended as well. Juvenal holds out the ideal of love in marriage but is not optimistic that it was any longer possible in a world of sex slavery and drugged orgies. According to (the persona of) Juvenal, abortion for the wealthy was endemic because these women did not want to risk all through pregnancy. The poor left their babies on the rubbish heap. When the wealthy couples wanted to start a family, they picked out kids from the trash. I like most doubt that this happened in reality, but Juvenal gives us this fable as an index of Rome's moral collapse.
Juvenal makes an only partially ironic case against being wealthy. Why be responsible for the patronage and welfare of your community? Why put up with the always dissatisfied parasites, clients who faun on their patron for food and favors? Having a lot of money makes you vulnerable to crime. And Rome's culture of avarice can only lead the non-wealthy to take up a life of crime. The wealthy have no secrets because all of their slaves and servants are the spies of their master's or patron's rivals and adversaries. The old rich are also doomed to a loveless existence, constantly being pursued by legacy hunters who love nobody and are loved by nobody.
But Juvenal is not entirely negative and without hope. Juvenal believes humans started out good, leading a moral existence in the world's Golden Age, where people made their beds in caves out of leaves and the skins of their neighbors, the beasts. Nobody's genealogy reaches back that far though. Even the haughtiest Patrician and Senator derives from the criminal asylum seekers of Romulus's new city. Ultimately, Juvenal's ethical philosophy is a form of proto-existentialism. He turns away from the crass materialism of the masses who lived by the promises of 'bread and circuses'. We are told not to pray, because Fortune is a congery of mankind and the other gods won't hear you either because they are essentially dead. What is there to pray for? Old age is worse than death. Wealth solves some problems but creates many more. The only punishment we can expect from the divine is our own personal guilt, which is not dissipated through our devotion and prayers. So the only thing to live for is other people. True happiness comes from treating other people good and showing a loving kindness to all. In this context, Juvenal speaks his classic line sana mens in sano corpore: a sound mind in a sound body. This is both a moral injunction and the only thing worth praying for according to Juvenal. It does not (only) mean 'work out and you will be smart' but can also entail saying something akin to: keeping your body from being harmed by a desirous or depraved existence is really the only way to stay sane.
This is a review for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard) edition of 2004. Most of the Loeb editions include translations from the early 20th century, so in those terms this version features an up-to-date translation. The Latin text is on the left hand page and the translation is facing on the right. Textual variants are footnoted on the left, allusions to historical or sociocultural people places and things are footnoted on the right. The Latin text of Juvenal's Satires is frequently vulgar and obscene, and the modernness and honesty of Braund's translation brings out the true rawness of these caricatures of 'modern' depravity. These pages show 'modern' times for the Romans, and yet they are clearly relevant to our clear understanding of the visceral and libertine ethos of our own 'modern' (liberal, imperial, stratified) society. Although Satires was composed with erudition and insight, many critics of these texts show that clearly the reader is being lied to throughout by Juvenal. Juvenal speaks through a distinct persona, from behind a mask, showing us uncensored possible worlds. Juvenal's Satires are variously construed from the perspective of an unseen spectator, or from the point of view of a performing satirical actor (a true 'Satyr'). Juvenal plays a degenerate bringing to light degeneracy, a degenrate who is being tried in the court of opinion, one which was also the court of Imperial entertainment. These texts range from (feigned?) misogyny and homophobia to (the ribbing of) sanctimonious conservatism. Perhaps not recognizing the irony, it was the ascetic monks and priests of the Middle Ages who preserved these texts as evidence of...well, pre-Christian error. Hence quite a bit of ironic sermonizing has been preserved. But the modern reader still feels encouraged to read on, enticed by this world of libertine pleasures and pagan abandon. The reader today is released from any attempt to take these words (sermones) seriously. Juvenal's Satires were meant to be funny, not pious.
Here are some specific illustrations from Juvenal's (and Braund's) work:
Juvenal dwells on many of Rome's problems—the problems of being a grand metropolis, the problems of being a new kind of society with a unique culture, even the problems that come from the amassing of obscene quantities of wealth. But this is not intended to be an exercise in cultural voyeurism. Juvenal ultimately provides sound advise on the right way to live. I will address these problems in turn and then briefly summarize Juvenal's existential solution.
Rome was a city, as grand as there ever was, that managed to get by without electric light or a police force. Juvenal vividly depicts the noise, crime, pollution, shortages, debt, and ethnic diversity that made Rome a hell for many. Today's concerns about multi-culturalism and uncontrollable immigration could easily be read off these ancient pages. After long distance trade and travel were both made possible throughout the Roman Empire, an unprecedented confluence of commodities and cultures poured into the capital, leading poets of all stripes to wonder if the monoglot and homogeneous Rome of the Republic was truly gone for good.
The times they were a-changing. The ethnology or ethnography of Rome as begun in Roman satire could not help but notice how the city was changing socially. There are references to men marrying men and the military rank and file freaking about gays in the military. The classical pattern of hetero marriage and love was being upended as well. Juvenal holds out the ideal of love in marriage but is not optimistic that it was any longer possible in a world of sex slavery and drugged orgies. According to (the persona of) Juvenal, abortion for the wealthy was endemic because these women did not want to risk all through pregnancy. The poor left their babies on the rubbish heap. When the wealthy couples wanted to start a family, they picked out kids from the trash. I like most doubt that this happened in reality, but Juvenal gives us this fable as an index of Rome's moral collapse.
Juvenal makes an only partially ironic case against being wealthy. Why be responsible for the patronage and welfare of your community? Why put up with the always dissatisfied parasites, clients who faun on their patron for food and favors? Having a lot of money makes you vulnerable to crime. And Rome's culture of avarice can only lead the non-wealthy to take up a life of crime. The wealthy have no secrets because all of their slaves and servants are the spies of their master's or patron's rivals and adversaries. The old rich are also doomed to a loveless existence, constantly being pursued by legacy hunters who love nobody and are loved by nobody.
But Juvenal is not entirely negative and without hope. Juvenal believes humans started out good, leading a moral existence in the world's Golden Age, where people made their beds in caves out of leaves and the skins of their neighbors, the beasts. Nobody's genealogy reaches back that far though. Even the haughtiest Patrician and Senator derives from the criminal asylum seekers of Romulus's new city. Ultimately, Juvenal's ethical philosophy is a form of proto-existentialism. He turns away from the crass materialism of the masses who lived by the promises of 'bread and circuses'. We are told not to pray, because Fortune is a congery of mankind and the other gods won't hear you either because they are essentially dead. What is there to pray for? Old age is worse than death. Wealth solves some problems but creates many more. The only punishment we can expect from the divine is our own personal guilt, which is not dissipated through our devotion and prayers. So the only thing to live for is other people. True happiness comes from treating other people good and showing a loving kindness to all. In this context, Juvenal speaks his classic line sana mens in sano corpore: a sound mind in a sound body. This is both a moral injunction and the only thing worth praying for according to Juvenal. It does not (only) mean 'work out and you will be smart' but can also entail saying something akin to: keeping your body from being harmed by a desirous or depraved existence is really the only way to stay sane.
August 22, 2023
Classics are nothing if not historically distant, so far removed from the characters and places of our present world that they can be hard to follow, yet oddly close enough in theme and rhetoric as to warrant our timeless attention. I don’t recommend this one on its own, without some familiarity in Greek and Roman history, but given that, if you’re willing to delve in, Juvenal and Persius paint some very familiar pictures of greed, power, and human relationships that feel as near to our modern political situation as any other angry or satirical storyteller.
October 21, 2025
Rome’s dawn-of-the-late-stage-empire satirist got me all jealous and wonderin—with people can’t stop helpin themselves on the Rome/us comparisons—where’s ours? Bill Maher the best we got? Between the doomsayer whine snivelers to the left and right far poles, and not but hand wringers down middle, but no Juvenal? All ‘n’ all another chink in that exceptional wall.
January 31, 2025
My enjoyment of this book was only held back by my lack of proficiency in Latin
February 18, 2015
Juvenal is amazingly witty all within a rhyme. He skewers Roman society for its many faults. Comparing his times with the Golden Age of Rome he finds it fails miserably. Virtue is now bought, dishonesty is rampant, even the favor of the gods is bought by bribery. No one is above being ruled by vice. It could be applied to our society today. A very insightful read on the foibles of humanity. We really haven't changed much since he lived.
Persius did not have a similar impact, probably because so little of his work is extant.
Persius did not have a similar impact, probably because so little of his work is extant.
May 21, 2012
Juvenal is an engaging Roman satirist. He is the primary subject of my dissertation so I have a particular interest in his works.
Want to read
August 7, 2010Bilingual edition preferred.
April 5, 2015
The Waldorf and Statler of Imperial Rome.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews