More ancient evidence is supplied by an inscription found at Aquinum, recording, so far as it has been deciphered, the dedication of an altar to Ceres by a Iunius Iuvenalis, tribune of the first cohort of Dalmatians, _duumvir quinquennalis_, and _flamen Divi Vespasiani_, a provincial magistrate whose functions corresponded to those of the censor at Rome. This Juvenalis may have been the poet, but he may equally well have been a relation. The evidence of the satires does not point to a prolonged absence from the metropolis. They are the product of immediate and intimate familiarity with the life of the great city. An epigram of Martial, written at the time when Juvenal was most vigorously employed in their composition, speaks of him as settled in Rome. He himself hints (iii. 318) that he maintained his connexion with Aquinum, and that he had some special interest in the worship of the "Helvinian Ceres." Nor is the tribute to the national religion implied by the dedication of the altar to Ceres inconsistent with the beliefs and feelings expressed in the satires. While the fables of mythology are often treated contemptuously or humorously by him, other passages in the satires clearly imply a conformity to, and even a respect for, the observances of the national religion. The evidence as to the military post filled by Juvenal is curious, when taken in connexion with the confused tradition of his exile in a position of military importance. But it cannot be said that the satires bear traces of military experience; the life described in them is rather such as would present itself to the eyes of a civilian. The only other contemporary evidence which affords a glimpse of Juvenal's actual life is contained in three epigrams of Martial. Two of these (vii. 24 and 91) were written in the time of Domitian, the third (xii. 18) early in the reign of Trajan, after Martial had retired to his native Bilbilis. The first attests the strong regard which Martial felt for him; but the subject of the epigram seems to hint that Juvenal was not an easy person to get on with. In the second, addressed to Juvenal himself, the epithet _facundus_ is applied to him, equally applicable to his "eloquence" as satirist or rhetorician. In the last Martial imagines his friend wandering about discontentedly through the crowded streets of Rome, and undergoing all the discomforts incident to attendance on the levees of the great. Two lines in the poem suggest that the satirist, who inveighed with just severity against the worst corruptions of Roman morals, was not too rigid a censor of the morals of his friend. Indeed, his intimacy with Martial is a ground for not attributing to him exceptional strictness of life.