Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/18

Rh on a marble stone, now lost, which was found at Aquinum. The stone formed part of an altar to Ceres; and the inscription records the fact that the altar had been dedicated to Ceres at his own cost by one D. Junius Juvenalis, who is described as a Tribune in a Dalmatian cohort, as a duumvir quinquennalis, and a flamen of the deified emperor Vespasian (Corp. Inscr. Lat. x. 5382). It should be added that the praenomen of the donor (D.) was not legible on the inscription, and that only the two first letters of the nomen Junius could be deciphered.

It is not at all certain that this inscription refers to the poet Juvenal. Apart from a very doubtful statement in a Biography which has yet to be mentioned, there is no evidence that Juvenal ever served in the army; indeed, his comments on the army in Sat. xvi., which express a contempt for soldiers very similar in kind to that expressed by Persius, almost forbid the supposition. His writings suggest that he habitually lived in Rome, and make it improbable that he could at any time of his life have lived long enough in Aquinum to enable him to gain and fill the important positions mentioned in the inscription. The most we can infer is that he belonged to a family of repute in his native town, and was himself therefore fairly representative of the higher circles of provincial life.

In Sat. xi. we find Juvenal in Rome, offering to his friend Persicus a frugal banquet to which his xiv