In this short book, Bartsch explores an understudied poet and satirist who lived in Rome during the time of Nero, a man named Persius who was friends with Lucan and a member of Seneca the Younger s entourage. Most of the satirists who lived in Rome then tended to poke fun at the great gravitas of the Stoics, but not Persius. Unique among his literary peers, he, too, wrote satires that lampooned the State and social conventions of the day, yet he wrote from a Stoic point of view, translating, as Bartsch argues, philosophy into poetry and humor."

Recognizing Persius is a passionate and in-depth exploration of the libellus--or little book--of six Latin satires left by the Roman satirical writer Persius when he died in AD 62 at the age of twenty-seven. In this comprehensive and reflectively personal book, Kenneth Reckford fleshes out the primary importance of this mysterious and idiosyncratic writer. Reckford emphasizes the dramatic power and excitement of Persius's satires--works that normally would have been recited before a reclining, feasting audience. In highlighting the satires' remarkable honesty, Reckford shows how Persius converted Roman satire into a vehicle of self-exploration and self-challenge that remains relevant to readers today. The book explores the foundations of Roman satire as a performance genre: from the dinner-party recitals of Lucilius, the founder of the genre, through Horace, to Persius's more intense and inward dramatic monologues. Reckford argues that despite satire's significant public function, Persius wrote his pieces first and mainly for himself. Reckford also provides the context for Persius's life and work: his social responsibilities as a landowner; the interplay between his life, his Stoic philosophy, and his art; and finally, his incomplete struggle to become an honest and decent human being. Bringing the modern reader to a closer and more nuanced acquaintance with Persius's work, Recognizing Persius reinstates him to the ranks of the first-rate satirists, alongside Horace and Juvenal.

The Satires of Horace (65-8 BC), written in the troubled decade ending with the establishment of Augustus' regime, provide an amusing treatment of men's perennial enslavement to money, power, glory and sex. Epistles I, addressed to the poet's friends, deals with the problem of achieving contentment amid the complexities of urban life, while Epistles II and the Ars Poetica discuss Latin poetry - its history and social functions, and the craft required for its success. Both works have had a powerful influence on later Western literature, inspiring poets from Ben Jonson and Alexander Pope to W. H. Auden and Robert Frost. The Satires of Persius (AD 34-62) are highly idiosyncratic, containing a courageous attack on the poetry and morals of his wealthy contemporaries - even the ruling emperor, Nero.

A Companion to Persius and Juvenal breaks new ground in its in-depth focus on both authors as "satiric successors"; detailed individual contributions suggest original perspectives on their work, and provide an in-depth exploration of Persius' and Juvenal's afterlives. Provides detailed and up-to-date guidance on the texts and contexts of Persius and Juvenal Offers substantial discussion of the reception of both authors, reflecting some of the most innovative work being done in contemporary Classics Contains a thorough exploration of Persius' and Juvenal's afterlives