Juvenal

Profile

Decimus Junius Juvenalis is the Latin satirical poet whose work, of strong moral inspiration, was very well known in the Middle Ages. Dante cites him several times in his prose works and in many places draws direct inspiration from his texts, which he almost certainly knew at first hand. In the Commedia, Statius names him among the great poets of Limbo, alongside Horace, Ovid, Lucan, and Statius himself, indicating that there Juvenal and Statius often withdraw to discuss the mount that hosts the Muses. In Purgatorio XXII, Statius also recalls how his own biography and that of the same Juvenal, in particular the idea of placing Statius as a link between Virgil and the two poets, draws nourishment from Juvenal's Satire VII.