ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historian Edward Gibbon’s appreciation of the Roman satirist Juvenal and the influence Juvenal had on Gibbon’s history writing. It first reviews Gibbon’s sustained study of Juvenal’s satires during his stay at Lausanne in 1763; from his detailed journal entries, we see that Gibbon appreciated Juvenal for the energy of his expression and his ability to paint vivid scenes. Yet he thought the satirist’s extreme indignation and nihilism were defects that made his satire less effective, both morally and aesthetically. We also see how Juvenal prompted Gibbon to make some historical reflections. The second half of the chapter examines the use Gibbon made of Juvenal when he wrote The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (published 1776–1788). Juvenal ostensibly is cited for details of Rome life. But references to the satirist also add a satiric tinge to Gibbon’s portrayal of Antonine Rome. They are even used to intensify the heavily satiric account Gibbon gives of Rome on the eve of the sack by Alaric in 410. In Decline and Fall, Gibbon explicitly appreciates Juvenal for his ‘lively’ descriptions, and, while knowing they are not straightforward sources, he uses them to create his own vivid picture of decline, focused on the city of Rome. Like Juvenal, Gibbon had a taste for greatness brought visibly low. Study of Juvenal helped make Gibbon into the satirical historian he became.
