The Sixteen Satires

Offers satirical and bitter denunciation of the degeneracy of Roman society. This work draws forth a world of whores, fortune-tellers, boozy politicians, slick lawyers, shameless sycophants, ageing flirts and downtrodden teachers. It portraits of decadent aristocrats - male and female - and the jumped-up sons of newly-rich former slaves. 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

• | Author: Juvenal, Peter Green
• | Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• | Publication Date: Aug 27, 1998
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language: eng
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9780140447040
• | ISBN-10: 0140447040