In a tone and manner ranging from irony to rage, Juvenal criticizes the actions and beliefs of many of his contemporaries, providing insight into value systems and questions of morality as opposed to the realities of Roman life.

Jachmann (1943) argued that up to one-third of what survives is non-authentic: Ulrick Knoche (1950) deleted about hundred lines, Clausen about forty, Courtney (1975) a similar number.

[4] In recent times debate has focused on the authenticity of the "O Passage" of Satire VI, 36 lines (34 of which are continuous) discovered by E. O. Winstedt in an 11th-century manuscript in Oxford's Bodleian Library.

Ever since Housman translated and emended the "O Passage" there has been considerable controversy over whether the fragment is in fact a forgery: the field is currently split between those (Green, Ferguson, Courtney) who believe it is not, and those (Willis, Anderson), who believe it is.

[4] Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman genre of satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a wide-ranging discussion of society and social mores in dactylic hexameter.

ex quo Deucalion nimbis tollentibus aequor nauigio montem ascendit sortesque poposcit paulatimque anima caluerunt mollia saxa et maribus nudas ostendit Pyrrha puellas, quidquid agunt homines, uotum, timor, ira, uoluptas, gaudia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli est.

Back from when Deucalion climbed a mountain in a boat as the clouds lifted the waters, and then asked for an oracle, and then little by little spirit warmed the soft stones and Pyrrha showed naked girls to their husbands, whatever men do—prayer, fear, rage, pleasure, joy, running about—is the gist of my little book.

He lists eunuchs getting married, elite women performing in a beast hunt, and the dregs of society suddenly becoming wealthy by gross acts of sycophancy, all as examples of widespread degeneracy.

In it, he also defames the emperor Otho for bringing cosmetics while he was on campaign, states that Gracchus, a noble, married another man, but will remain infertile despite any number of whippings during Lupercalia, and he also says the ghosts of great Romans would feel ill upon seeing such men in the Underworld.

Overall, this satire is a brutal commentary on the social inequality of ancient Rome, where the wealthy give their dependents the bare minimum in exchange for their loyalty.

Opening with a prayer for better treatment of scholars under a new emperor, possibly Hadrian,[14] the satire criticizes how learned men are underpaid while public entertainers, like the actor Paris, are excessively compensated.

To which, the narrator tells him that rich men have no secrets and that he will always find a patron, and Naevolus worries about growing older and losing his appeal.

He talks about how ancient Romans, like the noble Curius, were content with humble food, while modern wealthy people demand luxuries like ivory tables and professional meat carvers.

He also references a story from Herodotus about a corrupt Spartan consulting the Oracle at Delphi, stating that merely intending to do evil makes one immediately guilty.

Juvenal says that people are more concerned with presenting a clean atrium to guests than with maintaining a virtuous household for their children, and gives various examples, such as Caetronius and his son both squandering wealth on extravagant houses, and stating that religious customs, like Judaism, are learned from one's parents.

Juvenal claims that avaricious individuals risk their lives for these unimportant gains, for example, how Alexander the Great's realization that Diogenes, content with little, was happier than he.

Ultimately, the satire says that truly being content lies in possessing as much as Epicurus or Socrates found sufficient, or, in Roman terms, a modest fortune within the equestrian order; if such wealth does not satisfy, then Juvenal states that not even the riches of Croesus or Persia will be enough.

Juvenal states that while extreme circumstances have sometimes forced people into desperate actions for survival, even the most savage societies have historically refrained from cannibalism.

He recounts a recent incident in Upper Egypt where two rival cities, consumed by hatred, escalated a minor conflict into full-blown violence, leading to the horrific act of eating a fallen enemy raw.

In contrast, Juvenal says that the Vascones, besieged by Pompey, resorted to cannibalism only out of necessity, and even the infamous human sacrifices at the altar of Artemis in Taurus did not involve consumption of flesh.

At the end, Juvenal says that compassion is what makes humans and animals different, along with our ability to cry, as people are endowed not only with life but also with reason, enabling them to build civilization.

Juvenal says that soldiers are immune to civilian justice, as any legal action against them must take place within the camp, where a plaintiff stands little chance and may even face violence for their efforts.

[29] Juvenal's Satires, giving several accounts of Jewish life in first-century Rome, have been regarded by scholars, such as J. Juster and, more recently, Peter Nahon, as a valuable source about early Judaism.

[33] In his autobiography, the German writer Heinrich Böll notes that in the high school he attended when growing up under Nazi rule, an anti-Nazi teacher paid special attention to Juvenal: "Mr. Bauer realized how topical Juvenal was, how he dealt at length with such phenomena as arbitrary government, tyranny, corruption, the degradation of public morals, the decline of the Republican ideal and the terrorizing acts of the Praetorian Guards.