Persius Flaccus Aulus - Recognizing Persius

T HIS BOOK began as four Martin Classical Lectures at Oberlin College in April, 1999, under the auspices of Jim Helm and Tom Van Nortwick. I laid the groundwork for these lectures in Fall, 1998, as a pampered Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. Versions of sections 1.1 and 4.3 were given at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Florence, and Washington and Lee University. Parts of 1.1 and especially 2.6 appeared earlier, in my 1998 Arethusa article; part of 1.2, in my Introduction to Cynthia Dessen's The Satires of Persius (2 ed., 1996). The book's eventual midwives were Tom Van Nortwick (again) for Oberlin and Rob Tempio for the Princeton University Press, aided by Heath Renfroe and Jon Munk, and earlier by two attentive readers who have since identified themselves as Dan Hooley and Cedric Littlewood. They will see for themselves how much I have profited from their generous advice and criticism.

My excitement about Persius goes back to Robert A. Brooks's Roman Satire course at Harvard in Spring, 1951. A multitalented teacher, scholar, poet, and (later) businessman and administrator [see my Introduction to Brooks 1981], Rab Brooks remarkably, and fatefully for me, preferred Persius to Horace and Juvenal. At UNC, between 1960 and 2003, I had the privilege of teaching Roman satire frequently to bright and gifted students, for whose interest, support, and friendship, together with that of my former UNC colleagues, I am forever grateful. More recently, the Department of Classics at Florida State University has welcomed me as a neighbor and allowed me to use the Strozier Library.

Scholars to whom I am indebted include, but are by no means limited to, the following: Susanna Braund, Marcia Colish, Nancy de Grummond, Sheila Dillon, Barbara Gold, Margaret Graver, Lois Hinckley, Nicholas Horsfall, John Kirby, Anthony Long, Mark Morford, Glenn Most, Jeanne Neumann, Michael Putnam, Gretchen Reydams-Schils, Niall Slater, Philip Stadter, Nicola Terrenato, and Jessica Wolf. Special thanks are due to Trevor Luke and Allen Romano at FSU, who helped me with elusive references and bibliography, and with inter-library loans; and to David Orth Reckford, for his unstinting assistance with computer problems, needs, and formatting, and his constant encouragement.

To Charlotte Orthwho, amid so many other generous gifts, has bade me welcome to her vast treasure house of fiction and nonfiction, and creative ideas; who has often improved my wording; who has teased me into reading theoretical studies beyond my habitual comfort zone, and thinking more modernly; who has prodded me to travel to placesOxford, London, Rome, Florencewhere I could listen to other scholars, study, and talk; and who, beyond all this, has done me the honor of believing that I could transcend my academic persona and become, or try to become, more of a personthis book is gratefully dedicated.