Life
Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (in English as Juvenal) was the last great Roman satirist. Almost nothing of his life is known. There are thirteen medieval biographies of him attached to his works in the manuscript tradition, but all are late and likely derive from a single one composed in the fifth century.
What we do know about Juvenal comes from a single inscription bearing either his or his relative’s name from Aquinum, a few epigrams penned by Martial, and the Saturae themselves.
From the Saturae we can deduce that he was born sometime in the middle of the first century, and he began writing after the death of Domitian in 96. His death was after 127, since he refers to the consulship of L. Aemilius Iuncus, who was a suffect consul that year (Sat. 15.27).
Works
His sole work is the Saturae, sixteen satires in five books composed in hexameters, the standard meter for satire after Horace and Persius. Some 36 verses of the sixth satire have also been discovered, separated somehow from the rest of the work.
Juvenal’s earlier satires are caustic and biting criticisms of the activities of Romans. He claims that indignation at the baseness of his peers compels him to write satire. He begins semper ego auditor (“Shall I always be a listener?”), and calls indignatio his Muse.
In this respect, Juvenal is very close to Persius in style, though both satirists claim that they are writing in the tradition of Lucilius and Horace. Yet while Lucilius and Horace write almost witty satires, Persius and Juvenal are moralists, decrying the vices of the city. He follows in the path set by Persius in criticizing not particular individuals—buffoons the city can laugh at alongside the poet—but the failings and moral degeneracy of the city. In this respect, Juvenal isolates himself from his compatriots, and satire becomes bitterer.
In his last two books (Saturae 10–16), Juvenal, now in his old age, departs from his outcry, and instead produces a more ironic satire, in a somewhat similar vein as his predecessors.
Where he and Persius still differ is in religious outlook. Persius offers Stoicism as a way to overcome moral failings. Juvenal offers no such hope. The picture is bleak: Rome is a degenerate city, and it will continue to be so.
Notable Quotes
Saturae 6.161–169
‘Isn’t there a single one worthy of you, in all that vast flock?’
Let her be lovely, gracious, rich, and fertile; let her exhibit her
ancestors’ faces round her porticos; be more virginal than the
Sabine women, with tangled hair, who ended war with Rome;
a rare bird on this earth, in the very likeness of a black swan.
Who could stand a wife who embodied all of that? I’d rather,
much rather, have Venustina than you, Cornelia, o mother
of the Gracchi, if that proud expression has to accompany
your weighty virtues, if triumphs are part of your dowry.
Saturae 6.346–3.348
I know the warnings and advice that all my old friends offer:
“Lock the door, and keep her close.” But who is to guard the
Guardians themselves…?
- This is the poem from which comes the famous English phrase, “Who will watch the watchmen?”
Saturae 10.77–81
…They shed their sense of responsibility
long ago, when they lost their votes, and the bribes; the mob
that used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything,
curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only,
bread and circuses…
Saturae 10.354–359
Still, if you want a reason for prayer, for offering a pretty
white piglet’s innards, the sacred sausages, at the shrines,
then you might pray for a sound mind in a healthy body.
Ask for a heart filled with courage, without fear of death,
that regards long life as among the least of nature’s gifts,
that can endure any hardship, to which anger is unknown,
Juvenal Online
Latin: PHI Latin Texts
English: Poetry in Translation
Further Reading
- Michael Coffey 1989. Roman Satire. Bristol Classical Press.
- Kirk Freudenburg 2001. Satires of Rome: Threatening Poses from Lucilius to Juvenal. Cambridge University Press.
