The Institutes of Oratory as inspiration and source for Juvenal

The question of the relation between Juvenal and Quintilian is still unanswered: the reconstruction of their possible biographical and literary connections is very uncertain. The Life of Juvenal does not mention Quintilian; its author only states that Juvenal spent a significant part of his life declaiming. Their personal acquaintance is not confirmed by any ancient source, and the views of modern research are not univocal either; however, most scholars leave the question undecided. On the grounds of the biographical data, it cannot even be proven with certainty that Juvenal known Quintilian, thus we have to find evidence in the texts of the two authors. In this paper, I examine the possible influence of Quintilian on Juvenal's Satires, highlight textual and thematic parallels as well as common motifs in order to unfold the relation between the two authors