Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/16

Rh been assured of the patronage of Caesar. The probability is that the Caesar thus referred to is Hadrian, who succeeded Trajan in the year 117. The attempts to prove that Trajan was the emperor intended have not been successful. Trajan was by no means a literary emperor, whereas Hadrian was himself a poet and surrounded himself with literary and artistic persons of various kinds.

(5) In Sat. xiii. 17 Juvenal describes Calvinus, the friend to whom the Satire is addressed, as one

qui tam post terga reliquit Sexaginta annos Fonteio consule natus.

There were consuls of the name of Fonteius Capito in three different years, 12, 59, and 67. The first date is obviously too early; the year referred to is probably 67, since in that year, and not in the other two, the name of Fonteius stands first in the Fasti. This would fix Sat. xiii. to the year 127.

(6) Lastly, in Sat. xv. 27:—

Nos miranda quidem sed nuper consule Iunco Gesta super calidae referemus moenia Copti,

the reading Iunco, now satisfactorily established for Iunio, refers to Aemilius Iuncus, who was consul in the year 127. Sat. xv. must therefore have been written in the year 127, or shortly after it (nuper). It will be noted that these dates, supported by various other considerations, suggest that the Satires xii