Roman Satire And The Old Comic Tradition

This volume demonstrates that distinctive features of Roman satire found in the writings of Lucilius, Horace, and Persius derived from Greek Old Comedy.

This volume demonstrates that distinctive features of Roman satire found in the writings of Lucilius, Horace, and Persius derived from Greek Old Comedy.

Satirists are social critics, but they are also products of society. Horace, Persius, and Juvenal, the verse satirists of ancient Rome, exploit this double identity to produce their colorful commentaries on social life and behavior. In a fresh comparative study that combines literary and cultural analysis, Catherine Keane reveals how the satirists create such a vivid and incisive portrayal of the Roman social world. Throughout the tradition, the narrating satirist figure does not observe human behavior from a distance, but adopts a range of charged social roles to gain access to his subject matter. In his mission to entertain and moralize, he poses alternately as a theatrical performer and a spectator, a perpetrator and victim of violence, a jurist and criminal, a teacher and student. In these roles the satirist conducts penetrating analyses of Rome's definitive social practices "from the inside." Satire's reputation as the quintessential Roman genre is thus even more justified than previously recognized. As literary artists and social commentators, the satirists rival the grandest authors of the classical canon. They teach their ancient and modern readers two important lessons. First, satire reveals the inherent fragilities and complications, as well as acknowledging the benefits, of Roman society's most treasured institutions. The satiric perspective deepens our understanding of Roman ideologies and their fault lines. As the poets show, no system of judgment, punishment, entertainment, or social organization is without its flaws and failures. At the same time, readers are encouraged to view the satiric genre itself as a composite of these systems, loaded with cultural meaning and highly imperfect. The satirist who functions as both subject and critic trains his readers to develop a critical perspective on every kind of authority, including his own.

The author concludes that medical decisions are often based on cultural biases and philosophies, suggesting a revaluation of American medical practices is warranted.

Illuminates the relationships between Lucilius' satires and the Roman world in which he wrote, by combining linguistic and literary approaches.

This compact and critically up-to-date introduction to Roman satire examines the development of the genre, focusing particularly on the literary and social functionality of satire. It considers why it was important to the Romans and why it still matters. Provides a compact and critically up-to-date introduction to Roman satire. Focuses on the development and function of satire in literary and social contexts. Takes account of recent critical approaches. Keeps the uninitiated reader in mind, presuming no prior knowledge of the subject. Introduces each satirist in his own historical time and place – including the masters of Roman satire, Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal. Facilitates comparative and intertextual discussion of different satirists.

This is the OCR-endorsed edition covering the Latin AS and A-Level (Group 3) prescription of Juvenal, Satire 6 and the A-Level (Group 4) prescription of Satires 14 and 15, giving full Latin text, commentary and vocabulary, with a detailed introduction that also covers the prescribed material to be read in English for A Level. Juvenal was the last and the greatest of the Roman verse satirists and his poetry gives us an exuberant and outrageously jaundiced view of the early Roman Empire. This book contains a selection from three of his satires: Satire 6 attacks women and marriage, Satire 14 critiques the role played by parents in the education of children and Satire 15 describes all too vividly the cannibalism perpetrated by warring Egyptians. These Satires expose the folly and the wickedness of the world in some of the finest Latin to have survived from antiquity. Supporting resources are available on the Companion Website: https://www.bloomsbury.pub/OCR-editions-2024-2026