Juvenalis, Decimus Junius

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ELMY DE-1-60

THE

text in these selections is based upon that of Jahn; but in doubtful or disputed places I have used an independent judgment, the grounds of which will be found stated in the Notes.

Few ancient authors impose a heavier task upon the commentator than Juvenal, both on account of occasional obscurities of meaning and corruptions of the text, and from the large number of antiquarian and historical allusions which require explanation. I submit my labors to the judgment of competent scholars, hoping that they will contribute to the successful study of a writer-in whose terse and sententious diction the Latin language shows some of its highest capabilities.

Room has been made to insert one of the satires of Persius, to give a taste of the peculiar quality of an author, who, if dainty and bookish, is attractive for his moral elevation and earnestness.

T. C.

INTRODUCTION.

IN various manuscripts of Juvenal short lives of the

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supposed to have been written by the grammarian Probus, although it is published among the memoirs attributed to Suetonius. There are but few references to the personal history of their author in the Satires themselves; for the reticent Juvenal is very unlike the confiding Horace, who wears his heart upon his sleeve. Putting together such scanty indications of the facts as we have from these two sources, an imperfect sketch may be made of a biography, which I will give nearly in the words of Macleane : 'DECIMUS1 JUNIUS JUVENALIS was born, possibly at Aquinum in Latium, about the beginning of Nero's reign, that is soon after A. D. 54, of respectable parents, his father being a rich libertinus, and he himself therefore ingenuus. He received the usual education of a Roman boy and youth, attending a school of rhetoric after the grammar-school. He took the toga virilis about the beginning of Vespasian's reign, A. D. 70, and having learnt rhetoric, continued to practise it as a man, not professionally, but for his own amusement. Soon after the year 100, in the early part of the reign of Trajan, Juvenal first published a volume of Satires (of which the first in our collection was one), having already recited them to large audiences. It is not unlikely that some of these, or parts of them, had been composed in the reign of Do

1 Macleane and some others make the mistake of calling him 16 Decius," which never was a Roman praenomen.