Juvenal

Juvenal (Decimus Iunius[?] Iuvenalis) was a Roman satiric poet of the 1st century AD. Very little is known about his life, the ancient biographies being generally fictitious. He is best known for coining the phrase "bread and circuses" to describe the primary pursuits of the Roman populace.

He was known to be from Aquinum[?], and described himself as middle-aged at the time of publication of his first satire, which was sometime in the 100s AD. The latest known date for his activity is 127. For a time he was very poor and was dependent on the rich people in Rome, and never became well known; the only known contemporary mention is in Martial.

His surviving work consists of 16 satires in hexameter.