Skip to Main Content

The Invisible Satirist: Juvenal and Second-Century Rome

Online ISBN:
9780199387298
Print ISBN:
9780199387274
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Invisible Satirist: Juvenal and Second-Century Rome

James Uden
James Uden

Assistant Professor

Boston University
Find on
Published online:
23 October 2014
Published in print:
3 November 2014
Online ISBN:
9780199387298
Print ISBN:
9780199387274
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book offers a new reading of the Satires of Juvenal, rediscovering the poet as a smart and scathing commentator on the cultural and political world of second-century Rome. The study is unified by the idea of Juvenal as an “invisible satirist.” Previous studies have focused on the nature of his poetic persona, but this study argues that Juvenal creates no coherent character in his Satires. Rather, the satirist flaunts his ability to disguise his identity, to shift voices and provoke his audience with contradictory perspectives and ideas. The Invisible Satirist links these techniques to comparable phenomena in contemporary rhetoric and philosophy, particularly the shape-shifting performances of the sophists and the acerbic sermons of the Cynic philosophers. Individual chapters use close readings of the Satires to demonstrate Juvenal’s engagement with key issues of his period: the problem of critical speech at Rome; the changing nature of Roman identity amid the fluid multiculturalism of the second-century Empire; and the relationship that Greeks and Romans had with their past. The Juvenal who emerges is both more elusive in his poetics, and far more engaged with the culture and politics of Trajanic and Hadrianic Rome, than has previously been realized.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close