JUVENAL A HERO TO THE LOWER CLASS

By Shaia Palmer, Jack Kahrs, Billy Russell, and Nick Shooshan

Life

Born approximately 50 A.D in Aquinum.

Lived under emperors such as Vespasian, Domitian, and possibly Hadrian.

Lived in the city of Rome for most of his life.

Died around 127 A.D under the reign of Hadrian, though not entirely sure.

Style

Inherited satire as a literary genre from predecessors like Lucilius and Horace but produced his own outstanding form.

His training in rhetoric led to exaggeration, biting epigrams, and quotable phrases, but he was very sincere in all that he wrote.

Possibly a student of Quintilian. Mainly wrote in Dactylic Hexameter.

Juvenal- Panem et Circenses (Satire 10) - Latin

...sed quid

turba Remi? Sequitur fortunam, ut simper. Et odit

damnatos. Idem populus, si Nortia Tusco

favisset, si oppressa foret secura senectus

principis, hac ipsa Sejanum diceret hora

Augustum. Jam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli

vendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim

imperium, fasces, legions, omni, nunc se

continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,

panem et circenses.

Latin

Juvenal- Panem et Circenses (Satire 10) - English

…But what about the crowd of Remus? It follows fortune as always, and hates the conquered. The same people, if the goddess of fortune, Nortia, had favored Sejanus, if the unaware old age of the leader Tiberius was put down, then the people might say in this hour that Sejanus is emperor. Now for a long time, and from whom we sell votes to no one, the people have abandoned care. For the people who once gave leadership, bundles, legions, everything, now hold themselves together anxiously for two things: bread and entertainment. 

English

Panem et Circenses

Juvenal- mens sana in corpere sano (Satire 10) - Latin

Nil ergo optabunt homines? Si consilium vis,

permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid

conveniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris;

nam pro iucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt di.

Carior est illis homo quam sibi. Nos animorum

impulsu et caeca vanaque cupidine ducti

coniugium petimus partumque uxoris, at illis

notum qui pueri qualisque futura sit uxor.

Ut tamen exposcas aliquid voveasque sacellis

exta et candiduli divina tomacula porci,

orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpere sano.

Latin

Juvenal- mens sana in corpere sano (Satire 10) - English

Therefore, will men wish for nothing? If you want advice, you will allow the spirits themselves to consider what is appropriate to us, and may be useful to us; For the gods will give before delightful things whatever is the most suitable. Man is dearer to them than to man himself. We, led by impulse of our spirits, and by blind and empty desire, seek marriage and offspring of a wife. But known to them (the gods) which boys and what kind may be a future wife. Nevertheless, so that you might pray for something so that you might pledge in the chapels the internal organs and divine sausages of the pretty white pig, it must be prayed that a sound mind may be in a sound body. 

English

mens sana in corpere sana

Modern English Poem: Panem et Circenses What about the people of Rome?

They enjoy their fortune and being left alone.

As Tiberius ages and will soon approach death,

Sejanus, favored by Nortia, will be the only heir left.

Would embrace him as emperor,

Lacking the ability to control their future.

The people anxiously wanting to avoid containment,

Now rely on unity through bread and entertainment.

Modern English Poem: mens sana in corpere sano

What will men desire

To have before their funeral pyre?

They wish to have kids and a wife,

And to lead the perfect married life.

Except what man does not know

Is that the gods do not this to be so.

They care for man more than man himself

And would rather him wish for perfect health.