Roman Satire Flashcards
Modern Satirists
John Stewart, John Oliver, etc…
Satire
Exposes what needs to be changed in a comical way
Satura
Roman invention but related to old comedy, “filled full of food”
Ennius
Father of Satire
Martial
1st century poet who puts the types of poems in order
Style
Dactylic hexameter, 1st person, humor and wit, exposes something to try to improve it
Horace
Thought Satire should be written like a conversation and avoided vulgar language; made fun of Lucilius but people loved Lucilius so Horace gets in hot water
Juvenal
Hard hitting and offensive; says he sees too much crap around him to not write satire
Topics
Nobility, money, greed, friendship, etc…
Traditional satire
Dactylic hexameter
Menippean satire
Mix of prose and verse (Petronius)
Horace’s beef with Lucilius
Lucilius is awkward with no humor and tries to show off by using Greek and Latin
Horace 1.1
No one is ever happy with what they have, capitalism, but given the choice to switch lives no one would, but as long as you have enough money to live no more can make you any happier
Horace 1.9
Pest wants to get close to Horace to get close to Maecenas
Jim Gaffigan
Everyone has a vice