Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Laughing Matter
Prior Views on Didactic and Satire in Lucretius
The Audience of De Rerum Natura
Poet, Persona, and Persona Theory
Overview of This Study
Chapter 1. Satire: Genre and Mode
The Roman Genre Satura
Diatribe: A Red Herring for Roman Satire and De Rerum Natura
Satire beyond Satura: The Satiric Mode and the Discourse of Satire
The Momentous Risks of Doing Satire
Roman Satirists and Seriousness
Chapter 2. De Rerum Natura and Earlier Roman Satire
Generic Features of Satire in De Rerum Natura
Varro and Lucretius
Ennius and Lucretius
Lucilius and Lucretius
De Rerum Natura and the Satiric Authority of Ennius and Lucilius
Chapter 3. De Rerum Natura and Later Roman Satire
Satire Does Philosophy
Horace and Lucretius
Persius and Lucretius
Juvenal and Lucretius
Food and Dinner Guests: Satiric Excess, Lucretian Satiety
Lucretian Elementa and Satiric Alphabets
Stoic Persius, Epicurean Lucilius, and De Rerum Natura: The Source of Persius 1.1
Trouble at Sea in De Rerum Natura and the Later Satirists
Conclusion: De Rerum Natura in the Tradition of Roman Satire
Chapter 4. The Lucretian Speaker and the Mode of Satire
1. The Lucretius-Ego as Comic Speaker
2. The Personal Voice of the Lucretian Narrator
3. The “High Ground” and Abjection in De Rerum Natura
4. Satiric Attack and Guest Satirists
5. The Lucretian Speaker’s Indignation
6. Collusion: Speaker, Reader, Addressee
Conclusion: The Lucretius-Ego as Satirist
Chapter 5. Tensions between Didactic and Satiric Modes in Roman Satire and De Rerum Natura
De Rerum Natura and the Mode of Satire
Satire’s Didactic Poses
Straw Men and Didactic Tension in Satire
Didactic and Satiric Authority in De Rerum Natura
Satiric and Philosophical Initiation
Didactic Plotting in Roman Satire and Lucretius
Conclusion: De Rerum Natura between Philosophy and Satire
Chapter 6. Civic Satire in Roman Satura and Lucretius
Roman Satire and the City
Civic Discourse in Lucretius
Cleansing and Unmasking in Roman Satire and De Rerum Natura
Civic Satire in the Book-Ends of De Rerum Natura
Conclusion: Civic Satire as Spoudaiogeloion
Conclusion: Epicurean Satire
The Proem to De Rerum Natura Book 2: Lucretian Satire in Microcosm
The Divided Audiences of Catullus, Stephen Colbert, and Lucretius
Appendixes
Appendix 1: Concordance of Editions of Lucilius
Appendix 2: Lucilius and Lucretius on Virtus
Works Cited
Index Locorum
General Index