The Classical Outlook, Volume 95, No. 3
It is the purpose of this paper to examine the Lucilian manipulation of Greek philosophy and to question how the satirist’s account reflects or potentially distorts the context of intercultural adaptation of Greek philosophy within the Roman world. I will focus on evidence found in one of the longer fragments of the Satires, building on work begun by Farrell 2014 and Lévy 2017. This fragment (784-90M/805-11W/28.29C/789-795K)—likely produced circa 131 BCE (see Raschke 1979)—is part of a satire that told the tale of an attempted lovers’ tryst; the fragment itself depicts the unfortunate paramour brought up before the magistrate on the grounds of physical assault. It is a complicated account, and culminates in a confrontation between the judge and defendant, into which Greek philosophical terminology is jarringly inserted.
But the humor, and, indeed, the point of the satire is ultimately lost if the reader is not simultaneously fluent in both languages and, furthermore, well-versed in the aspects of each culture that are activated in these lines. What we gain from close study of this fragment, then, is not only a glimpse of the erudite and elusive comedy in play during the late second century BCE, but an idea of the Greco-Roman cultural knowledge required—and expected—of readers who wished to understand the joke. Lucilius tackles Greek philosophy from a distinctly Roman point of view, and, in so doing, offers modern scholars a compelling example of Greek and Roman cultural interaction during the Republican era.