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Echoes of Martial in Juvenal's Third Satire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Robert E. Colton*
Affiliation:
Duquesne University

Extract

In his third satire Juvenal vividly describes the life of the respectable poor in Rome. Unable to endure the metropolis, a place full of annoyances, frustrations, dangers, corruption and decay, Juvenal's friend Umbricius (3.21) is about to depart for a better life in the little coastal town of Cumae (3.2–3).

Type
Miscellany
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 On Juvenal's third satire see Hartmann, A., De inventione Iuvenalis capita tria (Diss., Basel 1908) 31 -64; Highet, G. Juvenal the Satirist (Oxford 1954) 65–75, 251–256; Anderson, W. S. ‘Studies in Book I of Juvenal,’ Yale Classical Studies 15 (1957) 55–68, 88; Serafini, A. Studio sulla satira di Giovenale (Florence 1957) 32–37, 319–322; Musurillo, H., Symbol and Myth in Ancient Poetry (New York 1961) 170–173. A similar search for echoes of Martial in Juvenal's second satire is made by the present writer in the Classical Journal 61 (1965/6) 68–71.Google Scholar

2 In his article ‘Venusina lucerna: The Horatian Model for Juvenal,’ Transactions of the American Philological Association 92 (1961) 112, Anderson, W. S. points out, ‘Epode 16 recommends the action which Umbricius takes in Satire 3: namely, to abandon Rome,’ (p. 10).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 On the literary relationship of the two poets see Nettleship, H., ‘Life and Poems of Juvenal,’ chapter 5 of his Lectures and Essays, 2nd Series (Oxford 1895); Wilson, H. L. ‘The literary influence of Martial upon Juvenal,’ A(merican J(ournal of) P(hilology) 19 (1898) 193–209; Highet, G. ‘Juvenal's Bookcase,’ ibid. 72 (1951) 370–371, 383–384, 386–387; Mason, H. A. ‘Is Juvenal a Classic? An Introductory Essay,’ Arion 1:1 (Spring 1962) 8–44, 1:2 (Summer 1962) 38–79. Invaluable also are these annotated editions of Juvenal: Mayor, J. E. B. Thirteen Satires of Juvenal I (London 18722, reprinted 1901); Friedlaender, L. D. Junii Juvenalis saturarum libri V (Leipzig 1895); Duff, J. D., D. Iunii Iuvenalis saturae XIV (Cambridge, England 1898, reprinted with corrections 1951).Google Scholar

4 All quotations from Juvenal, unless otherwise stated, are from Clausen, W. V. 's edition (Oxford 1959); all quotations from Martial are from Lindsay, W. M.'s edition (Oxford 19292).Google Scholar

5 Similarly in 8.221 Juvenal ends the list of Nero's crimes with his epic poem on the Trojan War. On recitations see Mayor ad loc. (pp. 173–182). On the unhealthy season of August cf. Horace, Ep. 1.7.1–13. Google Scholar

6 Cf. Martial 11.24. Google Scholar

7 Cf. Martial 3.7.3 and see Duff on Juvenal 1.95. Google Scholar

8 Juvenal uses constituo in this sense again in 6.487. On the trysts of Numa and Egeria see Livy 1.21.3. Google Scholar

9 According to the word index in Friedlaender, L. 's edition of Martial (Leipzig 1886), Martial uses perneo only here. A glance at Kelling, L. and Suskin, A., Index verborum Iuvenalis (Chapel Hill 1951) shows that Juvenal uses neither neo nor perneo. For neo of the Fates spinning see Tibullus 1.7.1; Ovid, Met. 8.453, Tristia 5.3.25, Ep. ex Ponto 1.8.64. Strictly, Lachesis is the Fate who allots the thread to be spun. The three Fates are first designated by name in Hesiod, Theog. 218 and 905; Homer (Od. 7.197) uses the word Kλῶθες ‘Spinners.’Google Scholar

10 For cerdo as a symbol of the lowest working class cf. Juvenal 4.153–154. Google Scholar

11 Cf. Martial 2.27.3, 10.10.10. Google Scholar

12 Serafini, , Studio 351 shows that Juvenal 3.100–107 is identical in thought with the speech of the Greek parasite Gnatho in Terence, Eunuchus 247–253.Google Scholar

13 Chione appears as a prostitute in Martial (1.34.7, 1.92.6, 3.34.2, 3.87.1, 3.97.1, 11.60), who describes her as poor, beautiful, shameless and impassive. Google Scholar

14 Inde sellariae dicuntur,’ says the scholiast on Juvenal 3.136, Scholia in Iuvenalem vetustiora, ed. Wessner, P. (Leipzig 1931) 39. On prostitutes see Balsdon, J. P. V. D., Roman Women (New York 1963) 224–226.Google Scholar

15 Suetonius, , Dom. 8.3.Google Scholar

16 Cf. Martial 5.27.3, 5.41.7; Juvenal 14.324. Google Scholar

17 Cf. Martial 5.23.7, 5.25.1; Juvenal 1.106, 5.132, 14.326. Google Scholar

18 Other epigrams on violations of the Lex Roscia theatralis are 5.14, 5.23, 5.25.1–2, 5.27, 5.35. Google Scholar

19 Domitian insisted on being addressed as ‘our lord and our god’ (Suet. Dom. 13.2). Martial uses these titles of Domitian also in 7.34.8, 9.66.3, 10.72.3. On Domitian as ‘dominus’ and ‘deus,’ see Sauter, F., Der römische Kaiserkult bei Martial und Statius (Tübinger Beiträge 21; Stuttgart 1934) 3151.Google Scholar

20 Suet. Aug. 40.5. Google Scholar

21 Cf. Martial 1.108.7, 2.74.1, 3.46.1, 5.22.11, 9.100.1, 10.10.12, 10.74.3, 10.82.2, 11.24.11, 14.125.2; Juvenal 1.96, 3.127. Google Scholar

22 Cf. Martial 1.49.31. Google Scholar

23 Schneider, C., Juvenal und Seneca (Diss., Würzburg 1930) 73, points out that Juvenal may have in mind three passages of Seneca: (1) De constantia sapientis 5.2 ‘more puerorum, quibus metum incutit umbra et personarum deformitas et depravata facies’; (2) De ira 2.11.2–3 ‘at timetur a pluribus, sicut deformis persona ab infantibus’; (3) Ep. mor. 24.13: ‘si personatos vident, expavescunt.’ Juvenal again closes a hexameter with rusticus infans in 9.60.Google Scholar

24 Cf. Juvenal 6.113 and see Highet, , Juvenal the Satirist 261.Google Scholar

25 Serafini, , Studio 265 observes that labellum, a word used in Latin love poetry, always has an ironical or scornful sense in Juvenal.Google Scholar

26 Clausen reads Cordus at 3.208; Mayor, Friedlaender, and Duff, Codrus, a reading for which Highet, p. 300, convincingly argues. Google Scholar

27 The scholiast on Juvenal 3.221 says: ‘Persicum quasi divitem posuit eo, quod Pers<a>e divites, sic <H>oratius (Carm. 1.38.1) ‘Persicos odi <p.a.>‘ (Wessner 44–45). e+divites,+sic+oratius+(Carm.+1.38.1)+‘Persicos+odi+‘+(Wessner+44–45).>Google Scholar

28 On Juvenal's use of anaphora see Serafini, , Studio 240241.Google Scholar

29 Cf. 10.81 ‘panem et circenses,’ the two chief interests of the Roman people. Google Scholar

30 On Juvenal as one of the greatest poets of country life see Serafini, , Studio 174177. He calls Juvenal 3.223–231 a ‘quadretto georgico’ full of beauty and poetic feeling.Google Scholar

31 Cf. Juvenal 15.171–174. Google Scholar

32 The commentatons hold various opinions. Friedlaender believes that the sleepy emperor Claudius (cf. Suet. Claud. 8, 33) is meant. Mayor holds that the name typifies a sleepyhead and that Juvenal has no thought of Claudius here. Duff, pointing to the future tense of eripient, thinks a contemporary is designated. Juvenal directly calls Claudius by name in 5.147, 6.115, 14.330. For the somnolence of the seal see Pliny N.H. 9.42. Google Scholar

33 Juvenal may also be thinking of the opening of Persius 5.96: ‘stat contra ratio …’ For Juvenal's literary debt to Persius see Highet, AJP 72.389–391. Like Quintilian (Inst. orat. 10.1.94), Martial (4.29.7–8) calls attention to Persius’ literary achievements. Juvenal does not mention the Stoic satirist. Google Scholar

34 For the influence of Martial's vocabulary on Juvenal, Ausonius, Prudentius, Sidonius Apollinaris and other poets see Stephani, E., De Martiale verborum novatore (Breslauer philologische Abhandlungen 4; 1889). On the Greek words used by Juvenal see Thiel, A., Iuvenalis Graecissans (Breslau 1901) and especially Serafini, Studio 365–371.Google Scholar

35 Cf. Juvenal 14.133. Google Scholar

36 Martial begins a pentameter with these words in 10.41.4. Google Scholar

37 Pref. to Book XII. Google Scholar

38 Above, n. 3. Google Scholar

39 Above, n. 3. Google Scholar

40 AJP 72.386–387; cf. also Juvenal the Satirist 173. Google Scholar