Aules Persius Flaccus was one of four major Roman verse satirists, the others being Gaius Lucilius (168-101 (?) BCE), Quintus Horatius Flaccus (or Horace, 65-8 BCE), and Decius Iunius Iuvenalis (or Juvenal, 67-130s (?) CE). Persius, like his predecessors, and like Juvenal who followed him, wrote predominantly in the dactylic hexameters that came to identify the genre of Roman verse satire. In adopting this mainstream verse form, Persius distinguished his work from the mixed verse and prose “satires” of his near contemporaries Seneca and Petronius. But Persius' poetry is anything but conventional in its character, tone, and composition. It is, in fact, the most eccentric, dense, complex, and difficult of all extant Roman satire.

What information we have of Persius' life comes from a

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Citation: Hooley, Daniel. "Persius". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 January 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11766, accessed 19 March 2024.]

11766 Persius 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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