This volume considers linguistic, cultural, and literary trends that fed into the creation of Roman satire in second-century BC Rome. Combining approaches drawn from linguistics, Roman history, and Latin literature, the chapters share a common purpose of attempting to assess how Lucilius' satires functioned in the social environment in which they were created and originally read. Particular areas of focus include audiences for satire, the mixing of varieties of Latin in the satires, and relationships with other second-century genres, including comedy, epic, and oratory. Lucilius' satires emerged at a time when Rome's new status as an imperial power and its absorption of influences from the Greek world were shaping Roman identity. With this in mind the book provides new perspectives on the foundational identification of satire with what it means to be Roman and satire's unique status as 'wholly ours' tota nostra among Latin literary genres.

This volume considers linguistic, cultural, and literary trends that fed into the creation of Roman satire in second-century BC Rome. Combining approaches drawn from linguistics, Roman history, and Latin literature, the chapters share a common purpose of attempting to assess how Lucilius' satires functioned in the social environment in which they were created and originally read. Particular areas of focus include audiences for satire, the mixing of varieties of Latin in the satires, and relationships with other second-century genres, including comedy, epic, and oratory. Lucilius' satires emerged at a time when Rome's new status as an imperial power and its absorption of influences from the Greek world were shaping Roman identity. With this in mind the book provides new perspectives on the foundational identification of satire with what it means to be Roman and satire's unique status as 'wholly ours' tota nostra among Latin literary genres.

This volume, from an innovative scholar of Latin Literature and Greek Old Comedy, distills the modern corpus of scholarship on Roman Satire, presenting the genre in particular through the themes of literary ambition, self-fashioning, and poetic afterlife.

William Allan's Very Short Introduction provides a concise and lively guide to the major authors, genres, and periods of classical literature. Drawing upon a wealth of material, he reveals just what makes the 'classics' such masterpieces and why they continue to influence and fascinate today.

Horace’s book of Sermones (also called Satires) was his first published work. Rather than a collection of satirical sideswipes, as the genre might have dictated, the book is a wiry, tight, muscular, interlaced hexameter artwork of enormous originality and as far removed from the legacy of satirical writing he inherited as one can imagine. It is the work of a 29-year-old grappling with issues of personal and poetic identity during one of the most important and pivotal times in European history. Geographically, socially and genetically an outsider, Horace earned himself a seat at Rome’s top creative table, close to the heart of the political engine that was to change Rome forever. His book details a transformational journey from ‘nobody’ to ‘somebody’, and is a simultaneous invention of poet and reinvention of poetic genre. Horace’s Sermones have floated in and out of fashion ever since they first appeared, regularly eclipsed by his Odes. Today, rehabilitated, they find space in the higher levels of the school curriculum. This book provides unique insights and will be of interest to all classicists, as well as students studying core influences on European literature.

Based on author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Southern California.

This book demonstrates that the carefully chosen Greek words in Persius’ programmatic passages play a significant role in the context of his literary criticism: they allow him to express his objection to the Graecizing poetic compositions of his day more convincingly, while facilitating intertextual dialogues with many writers. Greek words that occur in programmatic passages throw into relief various pathologies of poetry which Persius disapproves of and which contribute effectively to a justification of his rejection. However, this practice, which does not continue into the rest of his work, where Greek words are incorporated into the satirist’s thought more harmoniously, appears to serve specific expediencies and should not be considered characteristic of Persius’ attitude towards Greek culture in general. Besides, the satiric persona adopts a positive stance regarding Greek philosophy or comedy and criticizes the ignorant critics of Greek culture, while many aspects of Greek thought enrich his own poetry in several passages. Thus, despite the intensity with which he turns against the Graecizing compositions of his day, generalizations regarding an anti-Hellenic stance on Persius’ part should be deemed unfounded.