Figurative Reading of Juvenal’s Satire I

Nestor Torres Duarte

Instructor Jerilyn Sambrooke

Rhetoric 103A

November 26, 2016

Figurative Reading of Juvenal’s Satire I

“So let the Tribunes await their turn; let money carry the day; let the sacred office[29] give way to one who came but yesterday with whitened[30] feet into our city. For no deity is held in such reverence amongst us as Wealth; though as yet, O baneful money, thou hast no temple of thine own; not yet have we reared altars to Money in like manner as we worship Peace and Honour, Victory and Virtue, or that Concord[31] that clatters when we salute her nest.”

Juvenal’s first satire is a wonderful incantation about the novelty of the genre (of satire). He stresses the essence of vice in our humanity. That, after all, is what forms the content of great satire. The quote above illustrates how Juvenal underscores this point so central to his argument through the use of elaborate metaphors and hyperbolic statements.

The satire commences with a denouncement of the traditional subject matter in contemporary literature. He believes it is stubbornly preoccupied with mythology and not enough with the characters of the time, some of which he enumerates at length. One such story tells of Marius, an infamous statesman who was exiled on charges of extortion, but was nonetheless allowed to keep his riches. Pure indignation could drive him to write these satires, if not his own talent. And Juvenal asserts “it is to their crimes that men owe their pleasure-grounds and palaces.” It is precisely the vices of mankind that form the content of his satires. He states “all the doings of mankind, their vows, their fears, their angers and their pleasures, their joys and goings to and fro, shall form the motley subject of my page. For when was Vice more rampant?” And above all vices, reigns greed.

The particular quote in question comes after a hypothetical situation in which members of society belonging to different classes await for their dole (some form of government assistance). Members of a higher caste are given preferential treatment and are allowed to cut in line. A freedman in the audience asks why those of a higher caste should be allowed to cut in front of him, and as a point, he brings up that he is an incredibly wealthy man. His wealth puts the rigid Roman caste system in crisis, for wealth is of extremely high regard to most.

Wealth takes on a life of its own when the man states “let money carry the day” and personifies it. Such is the weight of it. The following line contains a euphemism alluding to slavery (newly-brought slaves bore white chalk beneath their feet): “let the sacred office[29] give way to one who came but yesterday with whitened[30] feet into our city.” It is a nuanced way of indicating the magnitude of wealth’s power, for a former slave now begs preferential treatment over a tribune all on the basis of his accumulated wealth. Juvenal goes so far as to attribute a certain kind of divinity to wealth. He states “ For no deity is held in such reverence amongst us as Wealth; though as yet, O baneful money, thou hast no temple of thine own; not yet have we reared altars to Money in like manner as we worship Peace and Honour, Victory and Virtue, or that Concord[31] that clatters when we salute her nest.” This metaphor is a grand one to make, particularly given the ultra-religious Roman context. He also speaks in a rather biblical manner, with his use of archaic vocabulary like “thou” and “thine.” It is a form of allusion, once again aggrandizing the significance of wealth. Lastly, when Juvenal states that there are no altars in honor of Wealth as there are other virtues, it is an indication of the taboo nature of greed. As overarching as our desire for wealth and money is as humans, it is not something that is proper. It seems almost at odds with other virtues like altruism.

Through an elaborate use of metaphors, Juvenal reaffirms the significance of wealth in a rigid hierarchical Roman society. Wealth is affirmed to be the worst of all vices, and the ultimate producer satire by Juvenal’s standards.