Codrus
Codrus was one of the King of Athens, though probably just a mythic figure, really. At any rate, due to one of those blessed tragic mix-ups, he died while in disguise and when his true identity was discovered, he became the last King. Afterward, even though it was still pretty much the identical job, the ruler was called an archon. None of this is actually covered in any detail by Juvenal other than the misery of his false façade traveling as a peasant.
Crispinus
Juvenal first refers to this character in Satire I, writing of him that he is a “guttersnipe of the Nile” as a result of being born a slave and rising upward. The next time his name is mentioned is as the first word of Satire IV wherein he is described as ”a prodigy of wickedness without one redeeming virtue; a sickly libertine, strong only in his lusts, which scorn none save the unwedded.” Although there is no one single overarching antagonist of the entire collection, there is no mistaking that for at least one chapter, Crispinus is as bad as it gets for Juvenal.
Virro
Satire V is titled “How Clients are Entertained” and Virro is an example of this. So, what’s the skinny on entertaining guests? Serve yourself a steak while your guests get hamburger—preferably served almost raw—and while you drink the finest wine in your cellar, pour your guess a very small sampling of barely flavored water. Of course, it should be noted that in Virro’s case a lamprey and eel are substituted for steak and hamburger, but you get the idea, right: “what comedy, what mime, is so amusing as a disappointed belly?”
Eppia
Satire VI is titled “The Ways of Women” and anyone expecting that this is going to be a love letter to the superiority of women over men had not read their historical literature. Eppia is a Senator’s wife who runs off with a gladiator and comes to view herself as a “She-Gladiator.” She does not come off well, but she is merely a symbol of women and the way they are portrayed even in the satires no directly targeting them in the title. Eppia will seem to most readers certainly no worse—if also no better—than many of the men and for that, at least, Juvenal is to be recognized as somewhat progressive. At least the bad girls are not alone in his wrath.
