The protagonists in the satires of Juvenal

Abstract

The persona theory has been applied to various branches of Latin poetry, but is incomplete without also considering both audience and, where relevant, addressee. By extension it may be seen that not only addressees, but also characters talked about mould the style of a speaker, and ancient rhetorical precept and practice confirm this. This study concerns all the major characters in Juvenal's satires who have such an effect on the author's persona. In a literary work the background to such characters must somehow be given to the audience: in a play, by the context; in non-dramatic work, by the use of known characters or character-types made recognisable by, inter alia, the conventional or verbal associations of their names. This study therefore contains a prior investigation into the ways in which Juvenal signals aspects of his theme or treatment by means of the names of such characters.