Summary: By employing proper names already used by Horace (e.g., Pedius, Nerius, Craterus,
Natta and Bestius), Persius does not merely exploit satirical commonplace, but attempts
an implicit intertextual conversation with his predecessor, reshaping his model. Although
he retains some of the previous traits of the Horatian personages, he gives them new
characteristics which, as a rule, depict them more reproachable. In this way he protects his
originality and allows himself to allude to a moral deterioration of his contemporary Roman
society and thus to justify the abandonment of Horace’s mild practices in favour of a harsher
kind of censure.