Libertinus here is not to be taken to mean that the entire set are freedmen.
As to 4, 98,
‘unde fit ut malim fraterculus esse gigantis,’
it gives no evidence whatever of Juvenal’s position. If it meant anything, it would rather imply that Juvenal was the son of a poor Italian and not of a foreign slave. So for 11, 145-6. His family was respectable, his means were fair, and he could afford to look down on upstarts in virtue both of his birth and of his property, although it is clear from his own works that he had in Rome the position of a rather humble dependent, who would be exposed to insult at the tables of the rich and powerful. Cf. 3, 318; 6, 57 (above); 12, 89, ‘laribus paternis’; 1, 24,
‘patricios omnes opibus cum provocet unus,
quo tondente gravis iuveni mihi barba sonabat.’
So 10, 225.
In vita iv. he is said to have attained equestrian rank. (Tribunician rank implied equestrian). This, on the whole, is confirmed by the inscription, and may be founded on the original vita.
Juvenal had a full course of education, first under the litterator and the grammaticus, then under the rhetor.[95] Cf. 1, 15,
‘Et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos
consilium dedimus Sullae, privatus ut altum
dormiret.’
This would imply a good position, and a certain command of money. Such patres libertini as Horace’s were very rare.