Juwenalis

Abstract

The book examines, both from historical as well as literary stance, the oeuvre of the Latin poet — Decimus Junius Juvenalis (60—130 c.e.), who authored a collection of 16 satires commonly divided into 5 books. In the preliminary chapters the study focuses on the issues of the development of the literary genre at hand, gives a comparative picture of Lucilius’, Horace’s and Persius’ writings, brings to mind the tradition of the Satires’ text and deals with reconstruction of author’s biography. Later in the book the literary text’s persona is analysed and a synopsis of motifs and stories provided. In particular, special attention is called to such themes as eating habits, sexual behaviours, scenes of daily life in Rome smacking of xenophobia. Further in the study, the text treats of the issues constituting differentia specifica of Juvenalis’ work. His poetry is found to be highly rhetorical, declamatory — a platform for the angry speaker to voice his emotional monologue by dint of rhetorical inventio. References to epic poetry and tragedy are made: the concept of the speaker of the first book of Satires, allusions to Aeneid and homeric poems, high style of poetic delivery, and ultimately, the notion of the speaker as spectator and ample implementation of evidentia. Last three chapters provide an interpretation of Satires as a moralizing treatise which delineates Juvenalis’ vision of the decling Rome. Arguments and examples to illustrate his thesis of the Empire’s downfall are drawn from Roman historiography, rhetoric and the tradition of the satiric genre itself. The poet sees the imminent collapse of Rome’s supremacy in the degenerate ways of the city as well as corruption of state and private mores. His poetry eschews theoretical disquisitions. Its primary aim is to appal by striking images.