Gaius Lucilius

Gaius Lucilius (180?-102?bc), Roman writer, creator of the distinctively Roman poetic genre of satire. He was born in Suessa Aurunca (now Sessa Aurunca, Italy) and served in Spain under his friend, the Roman general Scipio Africanus the Younger, in the Numantine War (134-133 bc). Lucilius belonged to the literary circle that gathered around Scipio. His 30 books of satiric verse, of which about 1300 verses survive, were frank and informal criticisms of contemporary events and people. The fragments are marked by such features of later Roman satire as trenchant invective and the use of the anecdote, dialogue, and fable forms.