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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
A LOST VOICE FOUND: JUVENAL AND THE POETICS OF TOO MUCH, TOO LATE
The opening lines of Juvenal 1 picture for us a moment of liberation, the precise point where the satirist, for whatever reason, has decided that he has had enough of listening. It has all been too much, and too awful. A kind of cruel and relentless punishment that has kept him pinned to his seat, braced against an unending assault of meaningless blather, and nervously wrestling with a smile to contain his rage (Juv. 1.1–21):
Semper ego auditor tantum? numquamne reponam
uexatus totiens rauci Theseide Cordi?
inpune ergo mihi recitauerit ille togatas,
hic elegos? inpune diem consumpserit ingens
Telephus aut summi plena iam margine libri
scriptus et in tergo necdum finitus Orestes?
nota magis nulli domus est sua quam mihi lucus
Martis et Aeoliis uicinum rupibus antrum
Vulcani; quid agant uenti, quas torqueat umbras
Aeacus, unde alius furtiuae deuehat aurum
pelliculae, quantas iaculetur Monychus ornos,
Frontonis platani conuolsaque marmora clamant
semper et adsiduo ruptae lectore columnae.
expectes eadem a summo minimoque poeta.
et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos
consilium dedimus Sullae, priuatus ut altum
dormiret. stulta est clementia, cum tot ubique
uatibus occurras, periturae parcere chartae.
cur tamen hoc potius libeat decurrere campo,
per quem magnus equos Auruncae flexit alumnus,
si uacat ac placidi rationem admittitis, edam.
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