S.'s translation of Juvenal, Satires 2 and 6 seeks, in her words, to make the text ‘manageable, accessible, and comprehensible to a modern audience’ (p. xi) with little or no exposure to Roman satire. As such, it provides a useful tool for instructors at both the secondary and university level. Most refreshingly, S. acknowledges the personal agency and power of translation, especially over and against the well-worn misogynistic tropes on which the poet relies. In this, S.'s translation feels fresh and modern. Instructors choosing a translation for students should compare this volume with P. Green's 1998 revised Penguin Classics edition and S. Braund's 2004 Loeb edition. S.'s translation strikes a balance between Green's cleverness and Braund's technical precision and employs a decidedly unflinching approach to innuendo and puns that may otherwise lie hidden. Note, for example, 6.73–4, where the fibula used by actors and singers is rendered ‘jock strap,’ and the pun in Chrysogonus’ name is playfully rendered ‘Ol’ Blue Balls’ (cf. 6.379, where fibula is rendered simply as ‘cock-pin’). Similarly, at 6.319, S.'s ‘great torrent of love juice’ for meri Veneris torrens is both lively and clear in its meaning. On the occasions where S.'s translation is unabashedly coarse, as at 6.129–30, when Messalina returns home from the brothel ‘with her stiff clit erect’ (rigidae tentigine volvae), the English accurately reflects the transgression and shock of the original Latin.
The introduction by S.H. Blake provides necessary context on the author, the history of the period, the manuscript tradition and the themes of both poems. Blake also briefly summarises the poems and highlights some of the most significant moments in the text. Along the way, she offers nods to key strands in critical interpretation without miring the reader in the full history of scholarship. For Satire 6, the introduction succinctly contextualizes the poem within the larger history of diatribe against women stretching back to Hesiod and Semonides (p. 27), thus providing a useful frame for the reader.
S. places explanatory notes at the end of each satire. Although familiar to Classicists, the ‘notes-in-back’ format may be less intuitive for students. The substance of the notes will be especially useful for instructors teaching courses on Roman culture as they are less technically specific, but more explanatory than Green's or Braund's. Whereas Green and Braund rely on terse comparative citations, the notes in S. are self-contained, and where they refer to external sources, brief context is often provided, for example p. 110 on Messalina, p. 112 on Britannicus and Agrippina et al. Secondary literature is treated similarly, for example on p. 117, where S. briefly quotes L. Watson and P. Watson's (2014) witty summation of 6.161–83. Instructors who are assigning the text as part of a larger curriculum will appreciate the pared down approach to comparative texts.
On the whole, the notes favour concision over detail and often work hand-in-glove with the translation to reinforce an irony or implication that students may miss. At 6.35–7, for example, if S.'s vivid translations of litigat, exigit munuscula and lateri parcas have escaped notice, the note makes clear the ridiculousness of the satirist's claim that a boy lover will be less demanding than a wife. Similarly, a few lines later, captatore is rendered ‘gold-digging’, which S. reinforces with her note on the captator as a stock caricature of satire.
Not to be missed is the bibliography at the end of the volume, which is thoughtfully constructed, including both seminal works of the twentieth century (W.S. Anderson, Braund, B. Gold, J. Henderson, A. Richlin) as well as recent scholarship (T. Geue, C. Keane, J. Uden, O. Umurhan).
Overall, the translation adheres closely to the word order and unadorned meaning of the Latin, often stripped of less accessible metaphors. Its close adherence to the Latin makes it comparable to Braund's Loeb, but generally more approachable for a modern reader. For example, S. provides ‘faggots’ for cinaedos (2.10, cf. 6.O3) and ‘fag’ for pathici (2.100) rather than Braund's more technically correct ‘pathic(s)’. S. demystifies terms such as tumidae mariscae (2.13) by providing merely ‘swollen hemorrhoids’, thus dispensing with a metaphor and euphemism that is neither necessary nor easily comprehensible for students without background in Latin. Many of S.'s turns of phrase resonate perfectly with contemporary idioms: ‘twerking’ for ceventem (2.21) and crisantis (6.322); ‘goes down on’ for subit (2.50); ‘going to hell in a handbasket’ for miseri traducimur (2.159); ‘getting it on’ for moventur (6.311); ‘manhandles’ for rapere (6.414); ‘Triple Dick, the sexpert’ for Triphallus (6.O26); ‘cuffs’ (i.e. handcuffs) for ferro (6.560); and ‘clueless’ for ignorat (6.569).
Jokes are skilfully glossed for the most part, with close attention to the consonance and vivid word choices that are the hallmarks of Juvenalian style. For example, tollit pendentis praemia coxae (6.321) is rendered ‘She takes the prize in booty-bouncing,’ recapitulating the alliterative play of the Latin. Here S.'s translation is sexier than Braund's description of Medullina's ‘undulating surges’ and more playful than Green's ‘shimmy of Medullina's buttocks’. At 2.117–18, S. captures succinctly a delightful double entendre in cornicini, the ‘horn-player’ with her rendering, ‘Gracchus gave $400K as a dowry to a trumpet player. Or was it a guy who blew on an upright pipe?’.
One of the chief obstacles to the student's appreciation of Juvenal is often the density of proper names and technical jargon. It is here that S.'s translation shines. She updates technical language with modern approximations and occasionally adds signalling words or phrases to proper nouns. The mockery of Postumus near the beginning of the sixth satire is a noteworthy example of the former where conventum tamen et pactum et sponsalia … paras (6.25–6) is rendered, ‘And yet you go on with the preparations? Asking Daddy for her hand, drawing up a prenup, planning a reception …’. Just a few lines later, the addition of a parenthetical phrase after 6.32, ‘It'd make a great diving board! Jump, I say!’ humorously compensates for the unfamiliar topical specificity in the reference to the Aemilian bridge. Similarly, by adding the epithet ‘Professor’ to the proper name Quintillian (6.75), S. captures the implications of the personal name. At 6.167 S. offers ‘good time Gracie’ in lieu of the proper name Venustina, exchanging a literal rendering for an alliterative phrase that will enhance the contrast between the fun-loving and the virtuous woman. Although explanatory phrases are not provided for many proper names, the attempt to render at least a portion of them comprehensible without resort to the notes is a welcome innovation.
The translation is not without occasional minor difficulties. Sometimes S.'s desire to remain faithful to contextual details creates strained visual images, for example ‘blue houndstooth’ and ‘pea-soup green velvet’ for caerulea … scutulata and galbina rasa (2.97). In this scene, pathics lounging about in capacious winter woollens admittedly appeals to a certain absurdist sensibility (and may also comport with the historical reality of a winter Bona Dea); nonetheless, without considerable reflection, the description may be difficult to appreciate upon first reading. A missed double entendre is noteworthy at 6.46,where nimiam … venam almost certainly refers to a penis (cf. Horace, Sat. 1.2.33, Persius 6.72 and J.N. Adams, Latin Sexual Vocabulary [1982], p. 35). At other times, the translation lacks the sharp juxtapositions that are the hallmarks of Green's edition. At Sat. 6.100–1, for example, illa maritum / convomit, haec inter nautas et prandet, S.'s translation, ‘That lady over there barfs on her husband, while this one eats lunch with the sailors’, fails to capture the shock of the enjambed convomit as well as Green's concise formulation, ‘The one pukes on her husband, the other eats with the sailors’. The influence of Braund can be felt in many passages, and occasionally the reader feels that S. is struggling to differentiate her translation. At 6.191, for example, Braund's ‘get laid’ appropriately conveys the etymology and register of concumbunt, whereas S.'s ‘get it on’ provides an alternative that is more lively, but perhaps not as apt for the context.
In summation this new translation of Juvenal, Satires 2 and 6 makes a valuable contribution to the field and will be especially useful for faculty teaching lower and upper division courses on Roman history and culture. Its liveliness and mastery of the Juvenalian idiom makes it accessible and pleasurable to read.
