The Satires (New ed)

Juvenal, writing between AD 110 and 130, was one of the greatest satirists of Imperial Rome.

His powerful and witty attacks on the vices, abuses and follies of the big city have been admired and used by many English writers, including Ben Jonson, Dryden and, most notably, Dr Johnson, who described his writing as a "mixture of gaiety and stateliness, of pointed sentences and declamatory grandeur".

Juvenal has been seen as a stern moralist and, more recently, as an extravagant wit, and is acclaimed for his vivid description of the scenes which arouse his anger.

He coined the famous phrase designating the people, "eager and anxious for two things only: bread and races" ("panem et circenses").

Niall Rudd's translation reproduces the original style and metrical effect of Juvenal's hexameters.

William Barr's introduction and notes provide a literary and historical background to the 16 satires.