The Roman poet Juvenal was the greatest satirist of Imperial Rome. His 16 satires encompass attacks on the immorality, abuses and hypocrisy of the Romans of his day. The last of the great Roman poets, he wrote between CE 110 and 130, his approach to satire coming close to modern expectations of the genre.

Today, Juvenal is best known for the Latin quotations panem et circenses (‘bread and races’ – he stated that this was all the Roman populace desired) and mens sana in corpore sano (‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’).

This audiobook, deftly delivered by David Timson, uses Niall Rudd’s translation, which preserves the style and metrical effect of Juvenal’s hexameters.