8. Satire

‘Satire’ traces the development of Roman satire from Lucilius in the 2nd century bc to Juvenal in the early 2nd century ad, showing how the targets of satire, and the personae adopted to attack them, reflect changing social and political contexts in republican and imperial Rome. It also considers how the narrative of decline, so popular in Roman thinking, contributes to the satirists' themes, and examines to what extent their criticisms of Roman society and literature reinforce cultural norms or challenge them. Roman satire ranged from erudite literary parody to the most vulgar abuse, but it is thanks to Juvenal that satire is seen as above all political, angry, and funny.