The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius / Literally translated into English prose, with notes, chronological tables, arguments, &c.

by Juvenal; Gaius Lucilius; Persius; Sulpicia

SATIRE VIII.

Juvenal demonstrates, in this Satire, that distinction is merely personal; that though we may derive rank and titles from our ancestors, yet if we degenerate from the virtues by which they obtained them, we can not be considered truly noble. This is the main object of the Satire; which, however, branches out into many collateral topics—the profligacy of the young nobility; the miserable state of the provinces, which they plundered and harassed without mercy; the contrast between the state of debasement to which the descendants of the best families had sunk, and the opposite virtues to be found in persons of the lowest station and humblest descent.