Juvenal and Persius

Juvenal author Persius author Susanna Morton Braund editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Harvard University Press

Published:24th Nov '04

Should be back in stock very soon

Juvenal and Persius cover

Mordant verse satire.

The bite and wit of two of antiquity’s best satirists are captured in this Loeb Classical Library edition.

Persius (AD 34–62) and Juvenal (writing about sixty years later) were heirs to the style of Latin verse satire developed by Lucilius and Horace, a tradition mined in Susanna Braund’s introduction and notes. Her notes also give guidance to the literary and historical allusions that pepper Persius’ and Juvenal’s satirical poems—which were clearly aimed at a sophisticated urban audience. Both poets adopt the mask of an angry man, and sharp criticism of the society in which they live is combined with flashes of sardonic humor in their satires. Whether targeting common and uncommon vices, the foolishness of prayers, the abuse of power by emperors and the Roman elite, the folly and depravity of Roman wives, or decadence, materialism, and corruption, their tone is generally one of righteous indignation.

Juvenal and Persius are seminal as well as stellar figures in the history of satirical writing. Juvenal especially had a lasting influence on English writers of the Renaissance and succeeding centuries.

So is there anything in this book that is less than perfect? Hardly, I would say… This volume is a truly great achievement, a most welcome addition to the Loeb Classical Library, and a must-buy for all institutional and private libraries of Latin literature. -- Vincent Hunink * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

ISBN: 9780674996120

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

560 pages