Nil Faciet...Perversity and Morality in Juvenal 9
Michael Broder
City University of New York
mbroder@nyc.rr.com
Juvenal's indignation is largely based on his notions of abnormality and its consequences; what happens when Romans transgress established boundaries of gender, sexuality, class, race, and religion. But in Satire 9, Juvenal explores the truly freakish;Naevolus, a Roman client who sexually penetrates his patron and also has sex with his patron's wife, fathering his patron's children. Because of this content, Satire 9 has historically been a very controversial poem, omitted from editions of Juvenal's work?particularly editions intended to by read by British and American schoolboys?and discussed in terms of "perversion" by the handful of critics who have deigned to comment on it at all. Gilbert Highet, in his extremely influential 1954 study, Juvenal the Satirist, calls Satire 9 "one of the most shocking poems ever written" (117) and critics including Highet, William S. Anderson, and Edward Courtney imply or state outright that they themselves consider the sexual practices portrayed in the poem to be "perverse," and argue that Juvenal holds this moralistic perspective as well. Where the critics differ is regarding how they read the tone of Juvenals poetic persona. Highet and the most recent Juvenal scholar of note, Susanna Morton Braund, view the speaker as mocking and scornful, while Anderson and Courtney view him as good-natured and compassionate. But all of these critics assume?regardless of the speaker's tone and regardless of his disposition toward his interlocutor: that Juvenal condemns the sexuality of Naevolus. I disagree. In contrast to all the major critics, the territory that I wish to stake out is as follows: Naevolus is not a figure of moral degradation, and Juvenal's sympathy towards him is genuine, not ironic or mocking.