on, first under the _litterator_
and the _grammaticus_, then under the _rhetor._[95] Cf. 1, 15,

'Et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos
consilium dedimus Sullae, privatus ut altum
dormiret.'

This would imply a good position, and a certain command of money. Such
_patres libertini_ as Horace's were very rare.

The inscription above quoted (_divi Vespasiani_ shows that its date is
after A.D. 79, and probably not long after) informs us that Juvenal
was (1) 'tribunus cohortis I. Delmatarum'[96]; (2) 'duumvir
quinquennalis'[97] and 'flamen divi Vespasiani' at Aquinum. The dates
when Juvenal held these posts cannot be determined exactly; but we can
infer certain points.

(1) There was a _certus ordo honorum_ in municipal life, and Juvenal
must have held the quaestorship and the aedileship before the
_duumviratus quinquennalis_. The lower limit of entering on a
municipal career was twenty-five, according to an order of Augustus,
and people did not usually begin it much later; we may therefore
conclude that these municipal posts were held by Juvenal somewhere
between A.D. 80 and 90. The last year is approximately fixed by the
way in which Martial in two of his epigrams (vii. 24 and 91) belonging
to A.D. 91 or 92 speaks of Juvenal; the words show that the latter
must have been established in Rome for some time.

(2) In ordinary course Juvenal would enter the army after the
completion of his seventeenth year. The short time he took to arrive
at the position of tribune, and the statement of _vita_ iv. 'cum ...
ad dignitatem equestris ordinis pervenire sua virtute meruisset,' make
it probable that he entered the army as _petitor militiae equestris_,
as a preliminary step towards entering on a political career.

The cohors Delmatarum I., which Juvenal commanded as tribune, was in
Britain in A.D. 106, and in A.D. 124.[98] Probably it had been
stationed there for a period of years, and it is likely that Juvenal
filled his tribuneship there. Now, all the _vitae_ inform us that
Juvenal was banished under the pretext of a military command. While
the other _vitae_ give Egypt as the place of his banishment, _vita_
iv. gives Scotland; and it seems highly probable that _vita_ iv. has
confused Juvenal's regular military command in Britain, and his
banishment, late in life, to Egypt. The words are:

'[Tyrannus] sub honoris praetextu fecit eum praefectum militis contra
Scotos, qui bellum contra Romanos moverant.'

This i