Juvenalis における exempla maiorum

Abstract

Reading Juvenal's satires we are deeply impressed by his use of picturesque examples. He refers to good examples chiefly from the maiores or the ancestors of Rome. Although it can be said that some of them are reduced to commonplaces, generally speaking Juvenal uses them to serve the purpose of each satire. In the invective Satires I, II and VI he uses them to accuse the degenerate nobility and to demonstrate that their behaviour is shameful and a disgrace to their ancestors. In the plaintive Satires III, V and VII, he uses maiores to express a kind of "chronological primitivism", in the form of a longing for the Golden Age. In the persuasive Satires VIII, XI and XIV the poet invokes exempla maiorum as a guiding principle of conduct. In addition Juvenal sometimes refers to renowned philosophers. His attitude to them does not remain unchanged throughout the satires. In Satires II and III he scorns hypocrite philosophers. Seneca is praised in Satires V and VIII, not because he was a philosopher, but because he was very generous to his less fortunate friends. In Satire X two Greek philosophers, Heraclitus and Democritus are placed above Roman ancestors. By examining how Juvenal deals with philosophers, we can deduce that the philosophers he approves of are those who despise luxury and live a simple life and whose teachings agree with his own experience and conceptions.