That Juvenal came to Rome about A.D. 90 has been shown above. This step he may have taken to forward his promotion in the army and afterwards in the procuratorial service. His failure in this direction may have led to his pessimism. His friendship with Martial (whom, however, he does not mention) is shown by Mart. vii. 24 (cf. vii. 91),
‘Cum Iuvenale meo quae me committere temptas,
quid non audebis, perfida lingua, loqui?’ etc.
That he was still in Rome in B.C. 101, and had the entrée of the atria of rich nobles is shown by Mart. xii. 18, written in that year.
‘Dum tu forsitan inquietus erras
clamosa, Iuvenalis, in Subura
aut collem dominae teris Dianae,
dura per limina te potentiorum
sudatrix toga ventilat vagumque
maior Caelius et minor fatigant,
me multos repetita post Decembres
accepit mea rusticumque fecit
auro Bilbilis et superba ferro.’
From this we see that he lived in the Subura, the plebeian quarter. Cf. 3, 5,
‘ego vel Prochytam praepono Suburae.’
While in Rome he still possessed his land at Aquinum and also a property at Tibur; 11, 65,
‘de Tiburtino veniet pinguissimus agro
haedulus.’
The statement of the vitae that Juvenal studied rhetoric till middle life is, as already stated, improbable, as being inconsistent with his military and municipal career; ‘facundus,’ applied to him by Mart. vii. 91, 1, does not mean ‘declaiming,’ but ‘poetical’ or ‘oratorical.’
Vitae i. a and b (and other seven) say, ‘ad mediam fere aetatem declamavit animi magis causa quam quod scholae se aut foro praepararet.’