Aris and Phillips (2016) p/b 219pp £19.99 (ISBN 9781910572337)
This edition of Juvenal’s Satires IV—comprising Satires 10, 11 and 12—is more than welcome. Juvenal has not been heavily edited, and this is the first Commentary to include these satires since E. Courtney’s complete commentary in 1980. It contains, says G., a commentary based on his translation, with explanations ‘comprehensible to readers who have little (or even no) Latin’. G.’s Introduction (20 pages) opens with ‘What is Satire?’, carries on with ‘Satire before Juvenal’ (Lucilius and Horace), followed by ‘Juvenal’s Satires’ (‘he has the anger of a Persius and a Lucilius married to the poetic skills of Horace’). G. here summarises the content of Books 1-3, and 5, listing some of the key targets. ‘Juvenal and his times’ reminds us that almost nothing is known about the man: even the date (AD 55-68) and place of his birth are unknown, while a few datable references argue for publication of his work between AD 110 and 130.
A section on ‘Style’ looks at irony, parody, and ‘grand style’, with full examples—‘grand style’, indeed—is itself broken down under nine separate headings. G. then asks ‘Do the poems have a purpose?’ G. suggests that ‘Readers must simply read the poems and decide the extent to which they are tongue-in-cheek or hand-on-heart’. A section on ‘The Metre’ takes a relatively elementary look at the hexameter, and the Introduction closes with a brief account of ‘The transmission of the text’, including the manuscript evidence.
The text (accompanied by translation) is presented, in accordance with the book’s aims, with what is hardly even a minimalist apparatus: G. accepts Clausen’s OCT text in general, with a small number of his (G.’s) preferred emendations. But the MS text of Juvenal does indeed present problems—he is a difficult author—and once or twice (the reviewer thinks) a little more might have been said. Thus, at 11.57, the MSS present an unacceptable hiatus; G.’s text eliminates this by printing tibi vita et moribus et re, attributing tibi vita to Nisbet. But the addition tibi had actually been proposed much earlier by Buecheler (with an optime ad sententiam from Housman) in the 19th century, and vita is the reading of the codd. dett., since the leading MS has vitae. It is, however, only fair to say that this is not an edition in usum editorum.
The bulk of the book—160 pages or so—is naturally taken up with the commentary. This is exemplary. Take 10.356, mens sana in corpore sano, ‘possibly the most famous phrase in Juvenal’: G. gives parallels from Petronius, Seneca, Horace, Persius, Plato; but is the line authentic (it has been queried on grounds of relevance)? G. argues that we all desire good health—and it is not always granted to the virtuous or denied to the wicked; and the following lines then make more sense. Or, at 10.88, how to explain the ‘conquered Ajax who has been badly defended’? G. explains this is as a reference to Tiberius, who had been ‘badly defended’ by Sejanus, and would exact vengeance. But Juvenal knew better than to mention the emperor by name, just as, at satire 4.65, the menacing Domitian becomes Agamemnon. Or take the laeta pascua at 12.13: laeta means ‘rich’, yes, but G. can take us further by reminding us that at Virgil, Georgics 1.1, laetamen means ‘manure’, as Servius points out. Or at 11.18, why should a dish being pawned be smashed (fracta)? Why not pacta (i.e. pawned)? Because, says G., the pawner does not wish his mother to recognise the item in the market. G. has more trouble with a seemingly inconsequential igitur at 12.78, obelized by Housman and described as ‘indefensible ‘ by Nisbet; G. makes it stand for ‘the wonders just described’, offering a not quite satisfactory parallel at 10.265, and a better but less worrying (because comprehensible ad loc.) one at Lucretius 1.237.
The reviewer can only say that time after time he enjoyed the convincing completeness of G.’s handling of a text which, without explanation, would be baffling; any student faced with these satires will find his problems explained and fully dealt with here. Mayer’s edition of Juvenal was long ago praised in Germany for its ‘extraordinary breadth of reading’; the same words could be used of this book, but to the ‘Belesenheit’ we must add clarity and comprehension. This is an outstanding commentary.
It is followed by a commendably short bibliography and indexes.
Colin Leach