Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558), mostly known to us for his poetic theory, the PoeticesLibri Septem, is the author of an extensive, though largely unstudied poetic oeuvre. Thiscontribution treats the fifth satire, titled Conviva, in his collection Teretismata, and strivesspecifically to analyze the development and representation of the satiric persona in thisspecimen of cena-literature. In accordance with the insights of the persona theory, the‘voice’ in the satire is not interpreted as a mirror of the author’s point of view, but as afunctional poetic construction. Using the text as a point of departure, we investigate theevolution of the persona, how he is influenced by the surrounding scene, the author’s ownhidden agenda, the literary tradition through intertextual allusions to the Roman satiristsin order to finally reach a conclusion regarding the effect of the persona on the messageand interpretation of the satire.
