Juvenal

Almost nothing is known about Juvenal's life. He was born around 55 AD, possibly in Aquinum in Latium, and wrote sixteen satires in five books, probably published between about 100 and 130 AD. That is nearly all we know. It is enough.

Juvenal's satires are the most savage verse in Latin literature. Where Horace's satires smile and shrug, Juvenal's rage. His targets are the vices of imperial Rome: the corruption of the rich, the degradation of the poor, the cruelty of patrons, the vanity of women, the depravity of the court. His most famous lines have entered common speech: 'bread and circuses' (panem et circenses), 'who watches the watchmen?' (quis custodiet ipsos custodes?), 'a healthy mind in a healthy body' (mens sana in corpore sano).

His style is rhetorical, declamatory, and brilliantly vivid. He paints Rome in lurid colours — the streets at night, the races at the Circus, the dinner parties of the nouveau riche, the humiliations of the client's life. Whether this reflects lived experience or literary convention is debated. What is not debated is the power of the writing. Juvenal is the model for every satirist in Western literature who has chosen indignation over irony.