Juvenal: Satires Book I by Juvenal

Juvenal: Satires Book I by Juvenal

Satire was a genre of poetry invented and developed by the Romans. When it came into Juvenal's hands, he stamped his mark upon it: indignation. His angry voice had an overwhelming influence upon later European satirists and persists in modern forms of satire. In this new commentary, Susanna Morton Braund situates Juvenal within the genre of satire and illuminates his appropriation of the 'grand style' of declamatory rhetoric and epic poetry for his indignant persona in Satires 1–5, including the notorious second Satire. The commentary on each of the Satires is followed by an essay which offers an interpretation of the poem, including a synthesis of recent critical thought. These essays, together with the overview in the Introduction, present the first integrated reading of Book I as an organic structure.

'… well-balanced and easy to consult … recommended not only to established scholars of Roman literature but also to students reading Juvenal' ARCTOS

Less is known about the life of Juvenal (D. Iunius Iuuenalis) than was once believed - a key source, an inscription naming one Iunius Iuuenalis, refers to a later descendant, not the satirist - and such evidence as there is remains sadly inadequate. Much of it comes from Juvenal's own work. We know that the family was from Aquinum in Latium near modern Monte Cassino. One ancient Life offers a plausible birth date of AD 55. Another states that till middle-age Juvenal practised rhetoric, not for professional reasons but as an amusement, which implies a private income. Book I of the Satires was not published till c. 110-12, when the poet was in his fifties, and is clearly the work of an impoverished and embittered man who has come down in the world - a hanger-on of wealthy patrons with a chip on his shoulder - but the precise circumstances of Juvenal's fall from grace are unclear.

The Lives all agree that he was exiled for an indiscreet lampoon of the jobbing of appointments by a Court favourite. But they do not agree as to where he was sent or which emperor was responsible, and Juvenal never refers to the matter. Many doubt whether he was exiled at all. If he was, it was almost certainly by Domitian, c. 93, to Egypt. In any case he must have lost his patrimony. It is reasonable to assume that he was recalled after Domitian's assassination in 96. After Hadrian's accession he seems to have acquired a small farm at Tivoli and a house in Rome. His last and unfinished (or partially lost) collection appeared c. 128-30. He may have died then: at the latest he is unlikely to have survived long after Hadrian's death in 138.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521356671
ISBN 10	0521356679
Title	Juvenal: Satires Book I
Author	Juvenal
Series	Cambridge Greek And Latin Classics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	1996-03-07
Number of pages	332
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable