Libel (poetry)

Libel is a verse genre primarily of the Renaissance, descended from the tradition of invective in classical Greek and Roman poetry.

In ancient Greece, invective verse generally existed in the form of epigrams written, almost always anonymously, against public figures.

In Latin, the genre grew in prestige and boldness, as major authors including Juvenal and Catullus wrote extended invectives without the cushion of anonymity.

Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo, Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi qui me ex versiculis meis putastis, quod sunt molliculi, parum podicum ...

I'll sodomize and face-fuck you, Pussy Aurelius, and Furius the sodomite Who conclude, based on my verse, Which is voluptuous, that I have gone soft ... Cicero's In Pisonem, a hyperbolic attack on Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, is one of the best-known political examples.