DECIMUS or DECIVS JUNIUS, a celebrated Roman satirist, respecting whose personal history only a few scanty notices have been preserved, chiefly in a life of the poet usually ascribed to Suetonius. Juvenal was a native of Aquinum, now Aquino, a city of Latium, on the Via Latina, a few miles from the left bank of the Liris; but whether he was the son of a freeman by birth or by adoption, is a point which cannot now be decided. Neither is the exact date of his birth or death known, though it seems most consonant to the other facts stated respecting him, to conclude that he must have been born about A.D. 42, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius. Some have believed him to have been the pupil of Quintilian, and Fronto, the preceptor of the two Antonines; but the time during which they flourished disproves this supposition. Juvenal seems to have pursued in his early years the study of rhetoric with much ardour, more as a recreation than with the view of employing it in the practical affairs of the forum; and it was not until he was far advanced in years that his genius for poetry fully developed itself. It is said that a passage in one of his Satires (vii. 87-92), which lashes with an unsparing hand the court of Domitian, was thought by the favourite of the day to aim indirectly at the conduct of Hadrian; and the emperor marked his displeasure by banishment from Rome to the most remote district of Egypt, though under the pretext of an appointment as prefectus cohortis. He had now reached his eightieth year, A.D. 121, and his age was not suited to bear a change of climate or the fatigues of a camp. He is said to have died in Egypt, though some make him return to Italy.

Of the works of Juvenal we possess a collection of sixteen satires, divided by grammarians into five books. The last satire is considered by some as not being the production of Juvenal. They were not written and published in the same order in which we now possess them. The character of the Satires of Juvenal is very different from that of the Satires of Horace. Whilst Horace laughs in a good-natured tone at the follies of mankind, Juvenal pursues their crimes with all the unmitigated bitterness of scorn. The picture which he at times presents is so hideous, that the mind revolts at its contemplation; and it is impossible not to believe but the same effect might have been produced if the poet had been somewhat less minute in his details. The corruption of manners which had at this time pervaded every class of the Romans, was certainly of the most revolting kind, and supplied ample materials for the pen of the satirist. Yet there is an exaggerated tone, and an air of rhetorical declamation, throughout his satires, which lessen greatly their effect. This is also the fault to be found with all the writings of his age, produced evidently by a desire of astonishing the imagination with bold and novel descriptions. The first edition of Juvenal was probably that published along with Persius, at Rome, 1470. The best is that of Rupertii, Lips. 1801, which has often been reprinted. It has been translated into English by Holyday, Oxf. 1616, 1673; by Stapleton, six Satires, Oxf. 1644; by Dryden, Lond. 1697; by Owen, Lond. 1785; and by Madau, Lond. 1789. The best translation into French is said to be that of Dusaulx, Paris, 1770, 1816, 5th ed., or of Raoul-Rochette, Paris, 1812.