Decimus Junius Juvenalis; Aulus Persius Flaccus

Translated and Illustrated, as well with Sculpture as Notes.

Oxford 1673 recent half calf with marbled boards, gilt spine with raised bands, gilt morocco label on two, Publisher: W.Downing, for F.Oxlad Senior, J.Adams and F.Oxlad Junior.

Persius or Aulus Persius Flaccus, AD 34-62, Roman satirical poet, b.Etruria. A member of a distinguished family, he went to Rome in boyhood, was educated there and came under the influence of the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, to whom he became attached in lasting friendship. Gentle and modest by nature, Persius had high moral standards. His writings (only six short satires), influenced in manner by Hoarce and Lucilius, preach Stoic moral doctrine. He exposed to censure the corruption and folly of contemporary Roman life, contrasting it with the ideals of the Stoics and of earlier Rome. Persius’ writing is harsh, obscure and difficult to translate.

Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Roman satirist who denounced the vice and folly of Roman society during the reign of the emperor Domitian (60-140) like most ancient satire, the writings of Decimus J. Juvenalis are essentially conservative. In order to avoid censorship, or worse, he chose as his targets people who had lived a century before; but he clearly meant to describe what he saw as the faults of his own time. In his Third Satire he gives us a wonderfully intimate and lively portrait of daily life in the streets of imperial Rome. In the poem, a friend of Juvenal’s is moving to a place in the countryside, and it is he who details what he can’t stand about the city. Tall 4to title within borders and printed in black and red, pulisher device and elaborate head and tail pieces. Illustrated with two maps and 43 text illustrations, two portraits and one folded print. Occasional brown spots otherwise a very good copy. Wing 1276. P.b2, 341.

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