This compact and critically up-to-date introduction to Roman satire examines the development of the genre, focusing particularly on the literary and social functionality of satire. It considers why it was important to the Romans and why it still matters.

• Provides a compact and critically up-to-date introduction to Roman satire.
• Focuses on the development and function of satire in literary and social contexts.
• Takes account of recent critical approaches.
• Keeps the uninitiated reader in mind, presuming no prior knowledge of the subject.
• Introduces each satirist in his own historical time and place – including the masters of Roman satire, Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal.
• Facilitates comparative and intertextual discussion of different satirists.

Daniel M. Hooley is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia. His previous publications include The Classics in Paraphrase: Ezra Pound and Modern Translators of Latin Poetry (1988) and The Knotted Thong: Structures of Mimesis in Persius (1997).