(Decius Junius), the celebrated Roman satyrift, was born about the beginning of the emperor Claudian's reign, at Aquinum in Campania. His father was probably a freed-man, who, being rich, gave him a liberal education, and, agreeably to the taste of the times, bred him up to eloquence; in which he made a great progress, first under Fronto the grammarian, and afterwards, as is generally conjectured, under Quintilian; after which he attended the bar, and made a distinguished figure there for many years by his eloquence. In the practice of this profession he he had improved his fortune and interest at Rome before he turned his thoughts to poetry, the very style of which, in his satires, speaks a long habit of declamation; *subactum redolent declamatorem*, says the critics. It is said he was above 40 years of age when he recited his first essay to a small audience of his friends; but being encouraged by their applause, he ventured a great publication; which reaching the ears of Paris, I *nihil* favourite at that time, though but a pantomimist, whom our satyrift had severely insulted, that minion made his complaint to the emperor; who sent him thereupon into banishment, under pretence of giving him the command of a cohort in the army, which was quartered at Pentapolis, a city upon the frontiers of Egypt and Libya.

After Domitian's death, our satyrift returned to Rome, sufficiently cautioned not only against attacking the characters of those in power, under arbitrary princes, but against all personal reflections upon the great men then living; and therefore he thus wisely concludes the debate he supposed to have maintained for a while with a friend on this head, in the first satire, which seems to be the first that he wrote after his banishment:

*Experior quid concedatur in illas* *Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinctis atque Latina.*

"I will try what liberties I may be allowed with those whose ashes lie under the Flaminius and Latin ways," along each side of which the Romans of the first quality used to be buried.—It is believed that he lived till the reign of Adrian in 128. There are still extant 16 of his satires, in which he discovers great wit, strength, and keenness, in his language; but his style is not perfectly natural; and the obscurities with which these satires were filled render the reading of them dangerous to youth.

**JUVENCUS** (Caius Vetticus Aquilinus), one of the first of the Christian poets, was born of an illustrious family in Spain. About the year 320 he put the life of Jesus Christ into Latin verse, of which he composed four books. In this work he followed almost word for word the text of the four evangelists; but his verses are written in a bad taste, and his Latin is not pure.