Satura quidem tota nostra est-"Satire is completely ours" wrote the Latin rhetorician Quintillian. What does it mean to "possess" a literary genre? Did the Romans invent satire? Is satire quintessentially Roman in its character? Do Romans exert a kind of imperial control over satire, i.e, can only Romans and Latin discourse achieve mastery over this genre? Or, according to a looser reading, does "nostra" suggest that satire is "about us," that rather than Rome mastering satire, satire has mastered Rome? We will explore these issues by tracing the history and character of satire from its Greek and Roman origins, through its masters-Horace, Persius, and Juvenal-until its application by Jerome and the Caena Cypriani in a later Christian context. Attention will also be given to variant forms of the genre such as the Menippean satire of Varro, Petronius, and the anonymously written "pumpkinification" of the emperor Claudius. Format: recitation/discussion. Evaluation will be based on translations, participation, class presentations, and an 8-10 page research paper. Prerequisite: Latin 202 or permission of the instructor. Enrollment: 12 (expected: 8).