experimentado ya, su sensibilidad hacia el disfrute de las composiciones poéticas permaneciera aún inquebrantable; como si sirviera para consolar a la nación por la pérdida irremediable de la libertad pública. De esta fuente de entretenimiento obtuvieron más placer durante el presente reinado del que habían tenido desde la época de Augusto. Los poetas de este período fueron Juvenal, Estacio y Marcial.
JUVENAL was born at Aquinum, but in what year is uncertain; though, from some circumstances, it seems to have been in the reign of Augustus.
Some say that he was the son of a freedman, (500) while others, without specifying the condition of his father, relate only that he was brought up by a freedman. He came at an early age to Rome, where he declaimed for many years, and, pleaded causes in the forum with great applause; but at last he betook himself to the writing of satires, in which he acquired great fame.
One of the first, and the most constant object of is satire, was the pantomime Paris, the great favourite of the emperor Nero, and afterwards of Domitian. During the reign of the former of these emperors, no resentment was shown towards the poet; but he experienced not the same impunity after the accession of the latter; when, to remove him from the capital, he was sent as governor to the frontiers of Egypt, but in reality, into an honourable exile.
According to some authors, he died of chagrin in that province: but this is not authenticated, and seems to be a mistake: for in some of Martial’s epigrams, which appear to have been written after the death of Domitian, Juvenal is spoken of as residing at Rome. It is said that he lived to upwards of eighty years of age.
Las composiciones restantes de este autor son dieciséis sátiras, todas escritas contra la disipación y los enormes vicios que prevalecían en Roma en su tiempo.