Res vera agitur on the structure and the targets of juvenal’s satire 4

Satire 4 is one of the most-criticized poems of Juvenal. Because of its structural problems, certain scholars have even casted doubts on its unity considering it as two fragments patched together by a later editor. The key to understand the satire’s structure is the connection between its two main parts and the central figures thereof, Crispinus and Domitian. Apart from the structural problems, this paper also deals with certain features of the mock-epic as well as the targets of the invective.