1 - Rome’s first “satirists”

Summary

Among the many intriguing aspects of Roman verse satire is the fact that it was such an early creation. Only a generation before, Latin literature had begun with the deliberate translation and adaptation not just of Greek genres, but of individual works, such as Homer’s Odyssey. Paradoxically to modern perceptions, throughout the history of Latin literature acknowledgment of Greek predecessors was to remain a sign of high poetic ambition. Roman satire, on the other hand, although not totally without precedent in Greek literature, was destined to be the only kind of Latin poetry which had a Latin name and did not openly claim a Greek model.

Owing to the loss of most early Roman literature we simply do not have enough surviving evidence to trace the formation of Roman satire with exactness. To modern literary historians Quintus Ennius (239–169 bce) represents the first phase in the development of the genre. For the Romans, however, it was created anew by Gaius Lucilius (floruit 130–103 bce). It was the latter, not Ennius, who became the generic exemplar for Roman verse satire (Horace, Sermones 1.10.46–9, 64–7; Quintilian, Institutes 10.1.95 does not mention Ennius). In fact, it was perhaps not clear until after Lucilius had made satura a vehicle of mockery and invective that a new genre had been created.