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Abstract.
Juvenal, Satire 7.1 has been subjected to various types of scrutiny. Since the phrase spes et ratio seems only to occur in Cicero and Juvenal, it appears that Juvenal has taken the words from Cicero's defense of the poet Archias to point out the ironies of patronage and gratitude in both periods.
The opening line of Juvenal's seventh satire (et spes et ratio studiorum in Caesare tarttum, 'both the hope and the practice of [literary] studies depend only on Caesar') has been subjected to varying amounts of scrutiny. Several scholars have labored to discover the specific identity of the unnamed Caesar.1 Others have looked more closely at the meaning of the phrase et spes et ratio.2 In 1962 W. S. Anderson suggested that this line provided a glimpse of 'the rational, hopeful satirist,' whose attitude 'especially through the words spes et ratio provides the dominant mood in Book 3. 'His theme,' Anderson said, 'will be spes et ratio, the motto of the new Caesar's reign.'4 Several years later M. Coffey, cited in agreement by D. S. Wiesen, determined that it was 'perhaps better . . . to regard the opening line as the expression of a remote . . . hope.'5 In 1973 R. S. Kilpatrick stated bluntly that 'the opening is...