Decimus Junius Juvenalis (Latin: [ˈdɛkɪmʊs ˈjuːniʊs jʊwɛˈnaːlɪs]), known in English as Juvenal (/ˈdʒuːvənəl/ JOO-vən-əl; c. 55–128), was a Roman poet.

The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people from the late first and early second centuries AD suggest that he began writing no earlier than that time.

The Satires are a vital source for the study of ancient Rome from a number of perspectives, although their comic mode of expression makes it problematic to accept the content as strictly factual.

The Satires do make frequent and accurate references to the operation of the Roman legal system, which adds credit to him having studied law.

His career as a satirist is supposed to have begun at a fairly late stage in his life, possibly by a lack of income in his study of law.

Scholars usually are of the opinion that this inscription does not relate to the poet: a military career would not fit well with the pronounced anti-militarism of the Satires and, moreover, the Dalmatian legions do not seem to have existed prior to 166 CE.

Green thinks it more likely that the tradition of the freedman father is false, and that Juvenal's ancestors had been minor nobility of Roman Italy of relatively ancient descent.