Cover of The Sixteen Satires

The Sixteen Satires

by Juvenal · 127

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Perhaps more than any other writer, Juvenal (c. AD 55-138) captures the splendour, the squalor and the sheer energy of everyday Roman life. In The Sixteen Satires he evokes a fascinating world of whores, fortune-tellers, boozy politicians, slick lawyers, shameless sycophants, ageing flirts and downtrodden teachers. A member of the traditional land-owning class that was rapidly seeing power slip into the hands of outsiders, Juvenal also creates savage portraits of decadent aristocrats - male and female - seeking excitement among the lower orders of actors and gladiators, and of the jumped-up sons of newly-rich former slaves. Constantly comparing the corruption of his own generation with its stern and upright forebears, Juvenal's powers of irony and invective make his work a stunningly satirical and bitter denunciation of the degeneracy of Roman society

Genre
humorhumorMore like thisLess of thissatiresatireMore like thisLess of thisancient Romeancient RomeMore like thisLess of thisancient worldancient worldMore like thisLess of thishistorical fictionhistorical fictionMore like thisLess of this
Setting
ancient historyancient historyMore like thisLess of thisancient Romeancient RomeMore like thisLess of thisantiquityantiquityMore like thisLess of thisRomeRomeMore like thisLess of thisItalyItalyMore like thisLess of this
Subject
historyhistoryMore like thisLess of thisphilosophyphilosophyMore like thisLess of thispoliticspoliticsMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 252 pages
Form
poetrypoetryMore like thisLess of thisplaysplaysMore like thisLess of thisessaysessaysMore like thisLess of this

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