Juvenal (c. AD 60–140)

Roman satirical poet. His 16 surviving Satires give an explicit and sometimes brutal picture of the corrupt Roman society of his time. Very little is known of his life, but his native place, if not his birthplace, was Aquinum (now Aquino, southern Italy). Juvenal is twice mentioned by Martial, and he may be the author of a well-known dedication (probably to an altar to Ceres) by one Juvenal who held military rank and some civil offices at Aquinum. This reference to military service agrees with the story of Sidonius Apollinaris (5th century) that Juvenal quarrelled with Paris, a famous ballet dancer in the reign of Domitian, and was sent to the Egyptian frontier as an officer of a local garrison.