The satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis Author:Juvenal Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE LIFE OF JUVENAL. J)ecimus Junius Juvenalis, the author of the following Satires, was born at Aquinum, a considerable town of the Volsci, about the year... more » of Christ 38.! He Juniut Juvenalit liherti loeupIetit incertum Jiliut an alumnut, ad median tcta- tem declamavit, animi magit causa, qucm quodscbola autforo tepntpararet. The learned reader knows that this is taken from the brief account of Juvenal, commonly attributed to Suetonius, but which is probably posterior to his time ; as it bears very few marks of being written by a contemporary author: it is, however, the earliest extant. The old critics, struck with its deficiencies, have attempted to render it more complete by variations, which take from its authenticity, without adding to its probability. f I have adopted Dodwell's chronology. Sic autem (says he) se ran illam totam babuiste centeo. Exul Erat Juv. cum Satiram ttriheret xv. Hoc confirmat etiam in v. 27. scboliastet. " De se Juv. dicit, quia in JEgypto militem tenuit, et ea promittit te relaturum qua ipte vidit." Had not Dodwell been predisposed to believe this, he would have seen that the scholium " confirmed" nothing: for Juvenal makes no such promise. Proinde rixt itli ipse adfuit quam dettribit. So error is built up ! How does it appear that Juvenal was present at the quarrel he describes ? He was in Egypt, we know ; he had passed through the Ombite nome, and he speaks of the face of the country, as falling under his own inspection : but this is all ; and he might have heard of the quarrel, at Rome, or elsewhere. Tempus autem ipte designamt rixx illiut aim et " nuper" illam con- tigme dicit, etquidem " Contule Junio." Jun. duplicem bahent fasti, alium Do- mit. in x. Contulatu collegam App. Junium Sabinum A. D. Ixxxiv; alium Ha- dria.nl in suo itidem ...« less