Satirical Designators for Romans. The Roman Past and Roman names in Persius’ Satire 1

Abstract

Persius refers to Romans with names drawn from the Roman past, namely Polydamas et Troiades, Titos, Romulidae, and Romule. The names are chosen due to their multi-layered semantics and allusions that result into irony and generate paradoxes that make up the satire. This paper aims to highlight the employment of these designators as a case study in literary onomastics in Roman satire. It comments on the function of the names in their context with a focus on the treatment of the Roman past through them; then it analyses the emerging patterns as additional aspects of Persius’ style and critique.