[Book Review] James Uden, The Invisible Satirist: Juvenal and Second-Century Rome. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2015

Abstract

This is an interesting and valuable book. In my view its main value lies in the discussion of Juvenal’s engagement with his literary contemporaries. Unlike the Augustan, Julio-Claudian, or Flavian periods, the post-Domitianic period has so far been underrepresented in studies of the literary environment.1 Researchers working on the other authors of this period (such as Pliny, Tacitus, Suetonius) should find this book almost as useful as those more interested in Juvenal, whether or not their author is specifically mentioned. Juvenal’s connections with previous satirists (Persius, Horace, Lucilius) are noted here and there, but are deliberately minimised (p. 11). The author wants to get away from studies of genre and technique and deal more with how this poetry would have ‘played’ in its own context, and therefore wants to engage with other texts of the same era rather than just with previous satirists (pp. 9-12). Show more