ilius; ll. 19-21,

'Cur tamen hoc potius libeat decurrere campo,
per quem magnus equos Auruncae flexit alumnus,
si vacat ac placidi rationem admittitis, edam.'

His satire is due to indignation at the moral decay of the Roman
world.

l. 30, 'Difficile est satiram non scribere' (cf. ll. 63, 79).

However, he does not intend to satirize the living, at least under
their own names; and in fact he has in his mind particularly the times
of Domitian, while most of his names are those of persons living under
Claudius or Nero; l. 170,

'Experiar quid concedatur in illos,
quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latina.'

In the first nine Satires Juvenal's bitterness is directed mainly
against the senatorial class, possibly because they had given him no
support in his office-seeking. Even his violent attack on women in
_Sat._ 6 is launched chiefly against the women of the highest class.
Note also the unjust way in which he speaks of the government of the
provinces (_Sat._ 8, 87-139). Juvenal is very bitter against Greeks
and Orientals, most of all against Egyptians (cf. _Sat._ 15, and his
attacks on the Egyptian Crispinus in 4, 1-33, etc.). Cf. 3, 119-125,
for his attacks on foreigners.

(2) He claims a wide scope for his subject; 1, 85,

'Quidquid agunt homines, votum timor ira voluptas
gaudia discursus nostri farrago libelli est.'

(3) His pessimism is very marked; cf. 1, 147,

'Nil erit ulterius, quod nostris moribus addat
posteritas; eadem facient cupientque minores,
omne in praecipiti vitium stetit. Utere velis,
totos pande sinus.'

So 12, 48-9. His pessimism leads to extravagant language like 6, 29
_sqq._ He is as hard on trifling foibles as on the most heinous
offences. Cf. 6, 166 _sqq._, 185 _sqq._, 398 _sqq._, 434-56 (on
learned ladies).

(4) His rhetorical learning and style (found in all the Satires, but
particularly in the later ones) are shown by

(_a_) His metre and language. Thus we find rhetorical uses of _ergo_
(3, 104; 281, etc.); _nunc_ (3, 268; 10, 210); _porro_ (3, 126; 11,
9); and of other particles.

(_b_) The way in which he chooses themes for his Satires, and
subdivides them. Several of the Satires, as 5, 8, 10, 14, are
_theses_, _i.e._ problems of a general character worked out in the
manner of the rhetorical schools. Thus _Sat._ 5 discusses the
question, 'Is the position of a client worth having?' _Sat._ 8, 'Has
high birth a value in itself?' He sometimes use