The Roman Satirists and Their Masks

Starting from the conviction that Latin literature gains from being viewed as performance, the author sees the creation of different characters or "masks" in Latin literature as a result of the Greco-Roman training in rhetoric. She treats the texts of Roman satire as drama and focuses on the characters whose voices are heared in these performances: the angry satirist, the mocking satirist and the smiling satirist. She goes on to explore the implications of the use of these "masks" for authors and audiences of satire.