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JUVENAL (DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS) (c...
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See also:JUVENAL (DECIMUS See also:JUNIUS JUVENALIS) (c. 60-140) , See also:Roman poet and satirist, was See also:born at Aquinum. Brief accounts of his See also:life, varying considerably in details, are prefixed to different See also:MSS. of the See also:works. But their See also:common See also:original cannot be traced to any competent authority, and some of their statements are intrinsically improbable. According to the version which appears to be the earliest:
" Juvenal was the son or See also: He is the See also:champion of the more sober virtues and ideas, and perhaps the organ of the rancours and detraction, of an educated but depressed and embittered middle class. He lets us know that he has no leanings to See also:philosophy (xiii. 121) and pours contempt on the serious epic writing of the See also:day (i. 162). The statement that he was a trained and practised declaimer is confirmed both by his own words (i. 16) and by the rhetorical See also:mould in which his thoughts and illustrations are See also:cast. The allusions which See also:fix the See also:dates when his satires first appeared, and the large experience of life which they imply, agree with the statement that he did not come before the See also:world as a professed satirist till after middle age. The statement that he continued to write satires long before he gave them to the world accords well with the nature of their contents and the elaborate character of their composition, and might almost be inferred from the emphatic but yet guarded statement of See also:Quintilian in his See also:short See also:summary of Roman literature. After speaking of the merits of See also:Lucilius, See also:Horace and See also:Persius as satirists, he adds, " There are, too, in our own day, distinguished writers of satire whose names will be heard of here-after " (Inst. Or. x. 1, 94). There is no Roman writer of satire who could be mentioned along with those others by so judicious a critic, except Juvenal. The See also:motive which a writer of satire must have had for secrecy under Domitian is sufficiently obvious; and the See also:necessity of concealment and self-suppression thus imposed upon the writer may have permanently affected his whole manner of composition. So far the original of these lives follows a not improbable tradition. But when we come to the See also:story of the poet's See also:exile the See also:case is otherwise. The undoubted reference to Juvenal in Sidonius See also:Apollinaris as the victim of the rage of an actor only proves that the original story from which all the varying versions of the lives are derived was generally believed before the middle of the 5th See also:century of our era. If Juvenal was banished at the age of eighty, the author of his banishment could not have been the " enraged actor " in reference to whom the original lineswere written, as Paris was put to See also:death in 83, and Juvenal was certainly writing satires long after too. The satire in which the lines now appear was probably first published soon after the See also:accession of See also:Hadrian, when Juvenal was not an octogenarian but in the maturity of his See also:powers. The cause of the poet's banishment at that advanced age could not therefore have been either the original composition or the first publication of the lines. An expression in xv. 45 is quoted as a See also:proof that Juvenal had visited Egypt. He may have done so as an exile or in a military command; but it seems hardly consistent with the importance which the emperors attached to the See also:security of Egypt, or with the concern which they took in the interests of the See also:army, that these conditions were combined at an age so unfit for military employment. See also:early conjecture is warrantable on so obscure a subject, it is more likely that this temporary disgrace should have been inflicted on the poet by Domitian. Among the many victims of Juvenal's satire it is only against him and against one of the vilest See also:instruments of his See also:court, the See also:Egyptian Crispinus, that the poet seems to be animated by See also:personal hatred. A sense of wrong suffered at their hands may perhaps have mingled with the detestation which he See also:felt towards them on public grounds. But if he was banished under Domitian, it must have been either before or after 93, at which time, as we learn from an See also:epigram of See also:Martial, Juvenal was in See also:Rome. More See also:ancient evidence is supplied by an inscription found at Aquinum, -recording, so far as it has been deciphered, the See also:dedication of an See also:altar to See also:Ceres by a lunius Iuvenalis, See also:tribune of the first See also:cohort of Dalmatians, duumvir quinquennalis, and _damn Divi Vespasiani, a provincial See also:magistrate whose functions corresponded to those of the See also:censor at Rome. This Juvenalis may have been the poet, but he may equally well have been a relation. The evidence of the satires does not point to a prolonged See also:absence from the See also:metropolis. They are the product of immediate and intimate familiarity with the life of the great See also:city. An epigram of Martial, written at the time when Juvenal was most vigorously employed in their composition, speaks of him as settled in Rome. He himself hints (iii. 318) that he maintained his connexion with Aquinum, and that he had some See also:special See also:interest in the See also:worship of the " Helvinian Ceres." Nor is the See also:tribute to the See also:national See also:religion implied by the dedication of the altar to Ceres inconsistent with the beliefs and feelings expressed in the satires. While the fables of See also:mythology are often treated contemptuously or humorously by him, other passages in the satires clearly imply a conformity to, and even a respect for, the observances of the national religion. The evidence as to the military See also:post filled by Juvenal is curious, when taken in connexion with the See also:con-fused tradition of his exile in a position of military importance. But it cannot be said that the satires See also:bear traces of military experience; the life described in them is rather such as would See also:present itself to the eyes of a civilian. The only other contemporary evidence which affords a glimpse of Juvenal's actual life is contained in three epigrams of Martial. Two of these (vii. 24 and 91) were written in the time of Domitian, the third (xii. 18) early in the reign of See also:Trajan, after Martial had retired to his native Bilbilis. The first attests the strong regard which Martial felt for him; but the subject of the epigram seems to hint that Juvenal was not an easy See also:person to get on with. In the second, addressed to Juvenal himself, the epithet facundus is applied to him, equally applicable to his " eloquence " as satirist or rhetorician. In the last Martial imagines his friend wandering about discontentedly through the crowded streets of Rome, and undergoing all the discomforts incident to attendance on the levees of the great. Two lines in the poem suggest that the satirist, who inveighed with just severity against the worst corruptions of Roman morals, was not too rigid a censor of the morals of his friend. Indeed, his intimacy with Martial is a ground for not attributing to him exceptional strictness of life. The additional See also:information as to the poet's life and circumstances derivable from the satires themselves is not important. He had enjoyed the training which all educated men received in his day (i. 15); he speaks of his See also:farm in the territory of See also:Tibur (xi. 65), which furnished a See also:young kid and See also:mountain See also:asparagus for a homely See also:dinner to which he invites a friend during the festival of the Megalesia. From the satire in which this invitation is contained we are able to form an See also:idea of the See also:style in which he habitually lived, and to think of him as enjoying a See also:hale and vigorous age (203), and also as a kindly See also:master of a See also:household (159 seq.). The negative evidence afforded in the See also:account of his See also:establishment suggests the inference that, like Lucilius and Horace, Juvenal had no personal experience of either the cares or the softening See also:influence of See also:family life. A comparison of this poem with the invitation of Horace to Torquatus (Ep. i. 5) brings out strongly the See also:differences not in urbanity only but in kindly feeling between the two satirists. Gaston See also:Boissier has See also:drawn from the indications afforded of the career and character of the persons to whom the satires are addressed most unfavourable conclusions as to the social circumstances and associations of Juvenal. If we believe that these were all real See also:people, with whom Juvenal lived in intimacy, we should conclude that he was most unfortunate in his associates, and that his own relations to them were marked rather by outspoken frankness than civility. But they seem to be more " nominis umbrae " than real men; they serve the purpose of enabling the satirist to aim his blows at one particular See also:object instead of declaiming at large. They have none of the individuality and traits of personal character discernible in the persons addressed by Horace in his Satires and Epistles. It is noticeable that, while Juvenal writes of the poets and men of letters of a somewhat earlier time as if they were still living, he makes no reference to his friend Martial or the younger Pliny and Tacitus, who wrote their works during the years of his own See also:literary activity. It is equally noticeable that Juvenal's name does not appear in Pliny's letters. The times at which the satires were given to the world do not in all cases coincide with those at which they were written and to which they immediately refer. Thus the manners and personages of the age of Domitian often See also:supply the material of satiric See also:representation, and are spoken of as if they belonged to the actual life of the present,' while allusions even in the earliest show that, as a finished literary composition, it belongs to the age of Trajan. The most probable explanation of these discrepancies is that in their present form the satires are the See also:work of the last See also:thirty years of the poet's life, while the first nine at least may have pre-served with little See also:change passages written during his earlier manhood. The See also:combination of the impressions, and, perhaps of the actual compositions, of different periods also explains a certain want of unity and continuity found in some of them.
There is no See also:reason to doubt that the sixteen satires which we possess were given to the world in the See also:order in which we find them, and that they were divided, as they are referred to in the ancient grammarians, into five books. See also:Book I., embracing the first five satires, was written in the freshest vigour of the author's powers, and is animated with the strongest hatred of Domitian. The publication of this book belongs to the early years of Trajan. The mention of the exile of See also:Marius (49) shows that it was not published before See also:loo. In the second satire, the lines 29 seq.,
" Qualis erat nuper tragico pollutus adulter
Concubitu,"
show that the memory of one of the foulest scandals of the reign of Domitian was still fresh in the minds of men. The third satire, imitated by See also:Samuel See also: The fifth is a social picture of the degradation to which poor guests were exposed at the banquets of the See also:rich, but many of the epigrams of Martial and the more sober evidence of one of Pliny's letters show that the picture painted by Juvenal, though perhaps exaggerated in colouring, was drawn from a See also:state of society prevalent during and immediately subsequent to the times of Domitian .3 Book II. consists of the most elaborate of the satires, by many critics regarded as the poet's masterpiece, the famous See also:sixth satire, directed against the whole See also:female See also:sex, which shares with Domitian and his creatures the most cherished See also:place in the poet's antipathies. It shows certainly no diminution of vigour either in its representation or its invective. The time at which this satire was composed cannot be fixed with certainty, but some allusions render it highly probable that it was given to the world in the later years of Trajan, and before the accession of Hadrian. The date of the publication of Book III., containing the seventh, eighth and ninth satires, seems to be fixed by its opening See also:line to the first years after the accession of Hadrian. In the eighth satire another reference is made (120) to the misgovernment of Marius in See also:Africa as a See also:recent event, and at line 51 there may be an allusion to the Eastern See also:wars that occupied the last years of Trajan's reign. The ninth has no allusion to determine its date, but it is written with the same outspoken freedom as the second and the sixth, and belongs to the See also:period when the poet's See also:power was most vigorous, and his exposure of See also:vice most uncompromising. In Book IV., comprising the famous tenth, the See also:eleventh and the twelfth satires, the author appears more as a moralist than as a pure satirist. In the tenth, the theme of the " vanity of human wishes " is illustrated by great historic instances, rather than by pictures of the men and manners of the age; and, though the declamatory vigour and power of expression in it are occasionally as great as in the earlier satires, and although touches of Juvenal's saturnine See also:humour, and especially of his misogyny, appear in all the satires of this book, yet their See also:general See also:tone shows that the See also: Fonteius See also:Capito was See also:consul in 67. Again at xv. 27 an event is said to have happened in Egypt "nuper consule Iunco." There was a L. See also:Aemilius Iuncus consul suffeclus in 127. The fifth book must therefore have been published some time after this date. More than the fourth, this book bears the marks of age, both in the milder tone of the sentiments expressed, and in the feebler power of composition exhibited. The last satire is now imperfect, and the authenticity both of this and of the fifteenth has been questioned, though on insufficient grounds. Thus the satires were published at different intervals, and for the most See also:part composed between loo and 130, but the most powerful in feeling and vivid in conception among them See also:deal with the experience and impressions of the reign of Domitian, occasionally recall the memories or traditions of the times of Nero and See also:Claudius, and reproduce at least one startling See also:page from the annals of Tiberius.4 The same overmastering feeling which constrained Tacitus (Agric. 2, 3), when the time of long endurance and silence was over, to recall the " memory of the 3 Pliny's remarks on the vulgarity as well as the ostentation of his See also:host imply that he regarded such behaviour as exceptional, at least in the circle in which he himself lived (Ep. ii. 6). 4 x. 56-107. former oppression," acted upon Juvenal. There is no evidence that these two great writers, who lived and wrote at the same time, who were animated by the same hatred of the tyrant 'under whom the best years of their manhood were spent, and who both felt most deeply the degradation of their times, were even known to one another. Tacitus belonged to the highest See also:official and senatorial class, Juvenal apparently to the middle class and to that of the struggling men df letters; and this difference in position had much influence in determining the different See also:bent of their See also:genius, and in forming one to be a great national historian, the other to be a great social satirist. If the view of the satirist is owing to this circumstance more limited in some directions, and his See also:taste and See also:temper less conformable to the best ancient See also:standards of propriety, he is also saved by it from prejudices to which the traditions of his class exposed the historian. But both writers are thoroughly national in sentiment, thoroughly masculine in tone. No ancient authors See also:express so strong a hatred of evil. The See also:peculiar greatness and value of both Juvenal and Tacitus is that they did not shut their eyes to the evil through which they had lived, but deeply resented it—the one with a vehement and burning See also:passion, like the " saeva indignatio " of See also:Swift, the other with perhaps even deeper but more restrained emotions of mingled scorn and sorrow, like the scorn and sorrow of See also:Milton when " fallen on evil days and evil See also:tongues." In one respect there is a difference. For Tacitus the prospect is not wholly cheerless, the detested tyranny was at an end, and its effects might disappear with a more beneficent See also:rule. But the gloom of Juvenal's See also:pessimism is unlighted by See also:hope. A. C. See also:Swinburne has suggested that the See also:secret of Juvenal's concentrated power consisted in this, that he knew what he hated, and that what he did hate was despotism and See also:democracy. But it would be hardly true to say that the animating motive of his satire was political. It is true that he finds the most typical examples of lust, cruelty, levity and weakness in the emperors and their wives—in Domitian, See also:Otho, Nero, Claudius and Messalina. It is true also that he shares in the traditional See also:idolatry of See also:Brutus, that he strikes at See also:Augustus in his mention of the "three disciples of See also:Sulla," and that he has no word of recognition for what even Tacitus acknowledges as the beneficent rule of Trajan. So too his scorn for the Roman populace of his time, who cared only for their See also:dole of See also:bread and the public See also:games, is unqualified. But it is only in connexion with its indirect effects that he seems to think of despotism; and he has no thought of democracy at all. It is not for the loss of See also:liberty and of the senatorian rule that he chafes, but for the loss of the old national manliness and self-respect. This feeling explains his detestation of foreign manners and superstitions, his loathing not only of inhuman crimes and cruelties but even of the lesser derelictions from self-respect, his scorn of li.txury and of See also:art as ministering to luxury, his mockery of the See also:poetry and of the stale and See also:dilettante culture of his time, and perhaps, too, his indifference to the See also:schools of philosophy and his readiness to identify all the professors of stoicism with the reserved and See also:close-cropped puritans, who concealed the worst vices under an outward See also:appearance of austerity. The great See also:fault of his character, as it appears in his writings, is that he too exclusively indulged this See also:mood. It is much more difficult to find what he loved and admired than what he hated. But it is characteristic of his strong nature that, where he does betray any sign of human sympathy or tenderness, it is for those who by their weakness and position are dependent on others for their See also:protection—as for " the See also:peasant boy with the little See also:dog, his playfellow,"i or for "the See also:home-sick lad from the See also:Sabine See also:highlands, who sighs for his See also:mother whom he has not seen for a long time, and for the little hut and the See also:familiar kids."' If Juvenal is to be ranked as a great moralist, it is not for his greatness and consistency as a thinker on moral questions. In the rhetorical exaggeration of the famous tenth satire, for in-stance, the highest energies of patriotism—the gallant and desperate See also:defence of great causes, by See also:sword or speech-are quoted 1 . . "Meliusne hic rusticus infans Cum matre et casulis et conlusore catello," &c.—ix. 6o. 2 xi. 152, 1a3.as See also:mere examples of disappointed ambition; and, in the indiscriminate condemnation of the arts by which men sought to gain a livelihood, he leaves no See also:room for the legitimate pursuits of See also:industry. His services to morals do not consist in any See also:positive contributions to the notions of active See also:duty, but in the strength with which he has realized and expressed the restraining influence of the old Roman and See also:Italian ideal of character, and also of that religious See also:conscience which was becoming a new power in the world. Though he disclaims any See also:debt to philosophy (xiii. 121), yet he really owes more to the " Stoica dogmata," then prevalent, than he is aware of. But his highest and rarest literary quality is his power of See also:painting characters, scenes, incidents and actions, whether from past See also:history or from con-temporary life. In this power, which is also the great power of Tacitus, he has few equals and perhaps no See also:superior among ancient writers. The difference between Tacitus and Juvenal in power of representation is that the See also:prose historian is more of an imaginative poet, the satirist more of a realist and a See also:grotesque humorist. Juvenal can paint great See also:historical pictures in all their detail—as in the famous representation of the fall of See also:Sejanus; he can describe a character elaborately or See also:hit it off with a single stroke. The picture drawn may be a See also:caricature, or a misrepresentation of the fact—as that of the See also:father of See also:Demosthenes, " blear-eyed with the See also:soot of the glowing See also:mass," &c.—but it is, with rare exceptions, realistically conceived, and it is brought before us with the vivid touches of a See also:Defoe or a Swift, or of the great pictorial satirist of the 18th century, See also:Hogarth. Yet even in this, his most characteristic See also:talent, his proneness to exaggeration, the attraction which coarse and repulsive images have for his mind, and the tendency to See also:sacrifice general effect to minuteness of detail not infrequently See also:mar his best effects. The difficulty is often felt of distinguishing between a powerful rhetorician and a genuine poet, and it is felt particularly in the case of Juvenal. He himself knew and has well described (vii. S3 seq.) the conditions under which a great poet could flourish; and he felt that his own age was incapable of producing one. He has little sense of beauty either in human life or nature. Whenever such sense is evoked it is only as a momentary See also:relief to his prevailing sense of the hideousness of contemporary life, or in protest against what he regarded as the enervating influences of art. Even his references to the great poets of the past indicate rather a blase sense of indifference and weariness than a fresh enjoyment of them. Yet his power of touching the springs of tragic See also:awe and horror is a genuine poetical See also:gift, of the same kind as that which is displayed by some of the early See also:English dramatists. But he is, on the whole, more essentially a great rhetorician than a great poet. His training, the See also:practical bent of his understanding, his strong but morose character, the circumstances of his time, and the materials available for his art, all fitted him to rebuke his own age and all after-times in the tones of a powerful preacher, rather than See also:charm them with the art of an accomplished poet. The composition of his various satires shows no See also:negligence, but rather excess of elaboration; but it produces the impression of See also:mechanical contrivance rather than of organic growth. His See also:movement is sustained and powerful, but there is no rise and fall in it. The See also:verse is most carefully constructed, and is also most effective, but it is so with the rhetorical effectiveness of See also:Lucan, not with the musical charm of See also:Virgil. The diction is full, even to excess, of meaning, point and emphasis. Few writers have added so much to the currency of See also:quotation. But his style altogether wants the charm of ease and simplicity. It wearies by the See also:constant See also:strain after effect, its See also:mock-heroics and allusive periphrasis, and excites distrust by its want of moderation. On the whole no one of the ten or twelve really great writers of ancient Rome leaves on the mind so mixed an impression, both as a writer and as a See also:man, as Juvenal. He has little, if anything at all, of the high imaginative mood—the mood of reverence and See also:noble admiration—which made See also:Ennius, See also:Lucretius and Virgil the truest poetical representatives of the genius of Rome. He has nothing of the wide humanity of See also:Cicero, of the urbanity of Horace, of the ease and See also:grace of See also:Catullus: Yet he represents another mood of ancient Rome, the mood natural to her before she was humanized by the lessons of See also:Greek art and thought. If we could imagine the See also:elder See also:Cato living under Domitian, cut off from all See also:share in public life, and finding no out-let for his combative See also:energy except in literature, we should perhaps understand the motives of Juvenal's satire and the place which is his due as a representative of the genius of his See also:country. As a man he shows many of the strong qualities of the old Roman plebeian—the aggressive boldness, the intolerance of superiority and See also:privilege, which animated the tribunes in their opposition to the senatorian rule. Even where we least like him we find nothing small or mean to alienate our respect from him. Though he loses no opportunity of being coarse, he is not licentious; though he is often truculent, he cannot be called See also:malignant. It is, indeed,. impossible to say what motives of personal chagrin, of love of detraction, of the mere literary passion for effective writing, may have contributed to the indignation which inspired his verse. But the prevailing impression we carry away after See also:reading him is that in all his early satires he was animated by a sincere and manly detestation of the tyranny and cruelty, the debauchery and luxury, the levity and effeminacy, the crimes and frauds, which we know from other See also:sources were then rife in Rome, and that a more serene See also:wisdom and a happier See also:frame of mind were attained by him when old age had somewhat allayed the fierce rage which vexed his manhood.
AuTI1oRITIEs.-The remarkable statements in a " life " found in a See also:late Italian MS. (See also:Barberini, viii. 18), " Iunius Iuvenalis See also:Aquinas Iunio Iuvenale patre matre veroSeptumuleia ex Aquinati municipio Claudio Nerone et L. Antistio consulibus (55) natus est, sororem habuit Septumuleiani quae Fuscino (Sat. xiv. i) nupsit," though not necessarily false, cannot be accepted without See also:confirmation.
The earliest evidence for the banishment of Juvenal is that of Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 48o), Carm. ix. 269, " Non qui tempore Caesaris secundi Aeterno coluit Totnos reatu Nec qui consimili deinde casu Ad vulgi tenuem strepentis auram I Irati fuit histrionis exul," lines which by the exact parallel drawn between See also:Ovid's See also:fate and Juvenal's imply the belief that Juvenal died in exile. The banishment is also mentioned by J. See also:Malalas, a Greek historian subsequent to Justinian, who gives the place as Pentapolis in Africa, Chron. x. 262, See also:Dindorf. The inscription (on a See also: [I] Delmatarum i IIvir quinq. See also:flamen divi Vespasiani vovit dedicav[it] que sua pee., " Corp. inscr. See also:lat. X. 5382, xiii. 201 sqq. The best of the known See also:manuscripts of Juvenal (P) is at See also:Montpellier (125) ; but there are several others which cannot be neglected. Amongst these may be specially mentioned the Bodleian MS. (See also:Canon. Lat. 41), which contains a portion of Satire vi., the existence of which was unknown until E. O. Winstedt published it in the Classical See also:Review (1899), pp. 201 seq. Another fragment in the Bibliotheque Nationale was described by C. E. See also:Stuart in the Classical Quarterly (See also:Jan. 1909). Numerous scholia and glossaries attest the interest taken in Juvenal in post-classical times and the middle ages. There are two classes of scholia—the older or " Pithoeana," first published by P. Pithoeus, and the " See also:Cornutus scholia " of less value, specimens of which have been published by various scholars. The earliest edition which need now be mentioned is that of P. Pithoeus, 1585, in which- P was first used for the See also:text. Amongst later ones we may mention the commentaries of Ruperti (1819) and C. F. Heinrich (1839, with the old scholia), O. See also:Jahn (1851, See also:critical with the old scholia), A. Weidner (1889), L. Friedlander (1895, with a full verbal See also:index). The most useful English commentaries are those of J. E. B. See also:Mayor (a voluminous and learned commentary on thirteen of the Satires, ii.,vi. and ix. being omitted), J. D. See also:Lewis (1882, with a prose See also:translation) and J. D. See also:Duff (1898, expurgated, and ii. and ix. being omitted). There are recent critical texts: conservative and chiefly based on P, by F. Buecheler (1893, with selections from the scholia) and S. G. See also:Owen (in the See also:Oxford Series of Texts) ; on the other See also:side, by A. E. See also:Housman(19o5)and by the same, but with fewer innovations, in the new Corpus poetarum lalinorum, fasc. v. The two last-named editors alone give the newly discovered lines of Satire vi. There are no recent See also:translations of Juvenal into English verse. See also:Dryden translated i., iii., vi., x. and xvi., the others being committed to inferior hands. Other versions are See also:Gifford's (1802), of some merit, and C. See also:Badham's (1814). Johnson's imitations of Satires iii. and x. are will known. For the numerous articles and contributions to the See also:criticism and elucidation of the Satires, reference should be made to See also:Teuffel's Geschichte der romischen Litteratur (Eng. trans. by Warre), § 331, and Schanz, See also:ditto (1901, ii. § 2, § 42oa). (W. Y. S. ; J. P. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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