The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius

The great Roman satirists lash out at the vices, follies, and corruptions of imperial Rome—its greedy patrons, decadent aristocrats, social climbers, and moral hypocrisies—in verse of blistering wit and indignation. Juvenal, the fiercest of them, gave the world enduring phrases like ‘bread and circuses’ and ‘who watches the watchmen?’ as he skewered a society he saw as rotten to the core. Paired here with Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius, these satires are the sharpest surviving voices of Roman social criticism. Savage, quotable, and startlingly modern in their disgust at power and excess, the Satires remain a cornerstone of classical literature and the foundation of the satirical tradition in the West.