THE

INTRODUCTION

present translation of thirteen satires of Juvenal (three are omitted for obvious reasons) was made partly to convince myself that I understood the satirist's meaning, and partly to assist my pupils towards so doing. It has lain by me for long, and has been retouched from time to time. I wish I could say that I feel at last satisfied. But translation is so delicate a thing that complete satisfaction is unattainable. The work, such as it is, is mainly my own. I have hardly at all consulted other translators: most I have purposely not read. For I wished the meaning conveyed to be that which Juvenal has to me. However faulty the result may be, I can at least claim that it is the product of careful study. I hope shortly to deal fully with the difficulties of my author in a commentary which is nearing completion. Two translations I have occasionally consulted when in doubt as to the meaning of the text, the painstaking literal rendering of the late J. D. Lewis, which forms part of his vigorous and able edition, and the clever though rather free version of Mr. S. H. Jeyes. To both of these scholars I desire to express my debt. Mr. Lewis is an excellent exponent of the letter, Mr. Jeyes of the spirit of the original. Of editors this is

not the place to speak. I have learnt much from many quarters. But above all I have learnt most from the monumental commentaries of Mayor and Friedländer, whose works have been always before me. In translating I have followed the text of my edition published at the Clarendon Press in the Scriptorum classicorum bibliotheca Oxoniensis, 1903. I have therefore taken no notice of varieties of reading, as these are fully dealt with in that book. Nor have I as a rule mentioned alternative possible versions, as these are rather the business of the commentator than of the translator. The translator gives the meaning as it appears to him; for the commentator is reserved the nice task of discussing ambiguities, and attempting by the application of conscientious learning to solve doubts. As I hope to appear shortly in this tedious capacity, I feel sure that I shall be pardoned if as a translator I prefer to be oracular or even dictatorial.

The satire of Juvenal draws its inspiration from Lucilius rather than from Horace and Persius. Lucilius wrote in an age when the ancient Roman austerity and simplicity was being softened by contact with Greek culture and civilisation. Against the evils of this softening process, Lucilius protested with true Italian vigour and fierceness. Horace, on the other hand, living in the golden age of elegance and peace, writes in a gentler and kindlier spirit; in which he is followed by his youthful imitator, the monkish Persius. Juvenal looked out upon a world of depravity, sapped by the importation of foreign corruptions; where evil was rampant in high