Fonteius Capito and C. Iulius Rufus were consuls A.D. 67, in which
year the sexagenarian friend whom Juvenal addresses was born. The date
of writing will therefore be A.D. 127.[103]
Cf. also 15, 27, 'nuper consule Iunco.' Iuncus was consul A.D. 127, so
that this satire could not have been written before A.D. 128. So 15,
44,
'Horrida sane
Aegyptos, sed luxuria, quantum ipse notavi,
barbara famoso non cedit turba Canopo.'
Juvenal must have added these lines to the satire while he was an
exile in Egypt, if he did not write the whole of it there. This is in
accordance with what _vita_ v. says, 'in exilio ampliavit satyras.'
Supposing this passage to be an addition, we may conclude that Book v.
was written about A.D. 128, but not before that year.
_Juvenal's banishment._--As before stated, all the _vitae_ but one
give Egypt as the place of Juvenal's exile. The exact place, according
to the scholiast on 1, 1 and 4, 38, was the Great Oasis (Hoasa:
Hoasis). Three _vitae_ (i. _a_, _b_, iii. _c_) state that he was at
that time _octogenarius_. This would make the date A.D. 135 or 136.
Most of the _vitae_ give as the reason of his exile the fact that he
wrote the lines,[104] 7, 90-2,
'Quod non dant proceres dabit histrio. Tu Camerinos
et Baream, tu nobilium magna atria curas?
Praefectos Pelopea facit, Philomela tribunos.'
Now these lines, the first he ever wrote (_vita_ iii. _c_) were
composed in his youth as an epigram on Paris, Domitian's favourite,
probably about A.D. 81-3. The true story then is that, when Juvenal in
A.D. 135 or 136 published a new edition of _Sat._ 7, he added these
lines (_vitae_ i. _a_, _b_, 'ut ea quoque quae prima fecerat
inferciret novis scriptis').[105] Now it has been inferred from Spart.
_vit. Hadr._ 23 _sqq._ that at this time an actor had great influence
over Hadrian, and the lines were taken as referring to him. The
emperor in a rage banished Juvenal to Egypt _per honorem militiae_,
writing maliciously on his commission 'Et te Philomela promovit'
(_vita_ iv.). The banishment is assigned to the influence of Paris by
Iohannes Malalas, p. 262 _sqq._ (Dindorf), and by Suidas. Cf. also
_Sat._ 15, 44 _sqq._, already quoted, and Sidonius Apollinaris 9, 267
_sqq._,
'Non qui tempore Caesaris secundi
aeterno incoluit Tomos reatu:
non qui consimili deinde casu
ad volgi tenuem strepentis auram
irati fuit histrionis exul.'
_Vita_ iii. _b_, 'Tristitia et angore periit anno aetatis suae altero
et octuagesimo.'
_Vita_ v., 'Decessit longo senio confectus exul Antonino Pio
imperatore.'
If this last statement is correct, Juvenal died after reaching the age
of eighty-two, as Antoninus came to the throne on 10th July, A.D. 138.
It follows from this also that he must have been born in the second
half of A.D. 55.
_The Satires._--The following are the more important points regarding
these: