Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

PROSE SATIRE
genre, is aptly and amusingly contrived. In general frivolity prevails, but the
praise of Nero (4-1) can be taken seriously and, of course, many of the charges
against Claudius, made by Augustus (10) and elsewhere, are in themselves grave
enough. One must hesitate, however, to impute any of the views expressed to
the author. For instance, the sneer at Claudius' extension of the citizenship
(3.3) tells us nothing about the real opinions of Seneca or any other individual.
The satirist adopts a stance, that of the plain and forthright man in the street,
much as Aristophanes had done long before. His satire is political in that it is
concerned with a political figure, but not because he says anything of political
moment.
The work's prosimetric form links it most obviously with Varro's Menippeans,
and, though nothing closely comparable in theme appears amongst
Varro's fragments, a considerable debt is likely. Something too may be owed
directly to Menippus: similarities to Lucian, notably his Icaromenippus and
Deorum concilium, could indicate Menippus as a common source. And one
need hardly doubt that Lucilius' council of the gods hovered somewhere in
our author's mind. In Lucilius the gods pass judgement on the deceased
Cornelius Lentulus Lupus, as they do here on the deceased Claudius. To these
literary influences, readily absorbed and exploited by a fertile imagination, we
may add the effects of a long Roman tradition of political abuse and invective.
The special circumstances of the time of composition allowed that tradition,
having long run underground, to surface again. Modern critics may take
exception to the treatment of Claudius' personal deformities as being in bad
taste. It would not have seemed objectionable to Catullus or Cicero.
The greatest of the many delights which this minor masterpiece affords lies
in the way hits are scored in every quarter. Historians, for instance, are mocked
for their claims to impartiality (1.1) and avoidance of quotations (9.2). Augustus
is made to talk like an animated inscription (10.2). The formalities of senatorial
debate are playfully caricatured (9.5, n-5)- So too are poetic conventions
and poetic language, not excluding that of Seneca's tragedies. Irony, bathos,
and all sorts of comic incongruity abound. The Latin is light and racy when
necessary, and witticisms flow with effortless ease. Proverbs and colloquialisms
lend the work almost a plebeian air, and issue rather charmingly from the
mouths of the gods. Olympus indeed seems as motley and clamorous as the
streets of Rome. The satire is utterly disrespectful (save, of course, towards
Nero), a fitting entertainment for the Saturnalia. Its unsparing derision of
Claudius and uproarious laughter do not, as some suspect, betoken hysteria,
but rather the healthy exuberance of a man at last pleased with himself and the
world around him.
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