Editing Satire (section)

===Roman world===
The first Roman to discuss satire critically was [[Quintilian]], who invented the term to describe the writings of [[Gaius Lucilius]]. The two most prominent and influential ancient Roman satirists are [[Horace]] and [[Satires of Juvenal|Juvenal]], who wrote during the early days of the [[Roman Empire]]. Other important satirists in ancient [[Latin]] are Gaius Lucilius and [[Persius]]. ''Satire'' in their work is much wider than in the modern sense of the word, including fantastic and highly coloured humorous writing with little or no real mocking intent. When Horace criticized [[Augustus]], he used [[veil]]ed ironic terms. In contrast, [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] reports that the 6th-century-BC poet [[Hipponax]] wrote ''satirae'' that were so cruel that the offended hanged themselves.<ref>{{Citation | last = Cuddon | title = Dictionary of Literary Terms | place = Oxford | year = 1998 | contribution = Satire}}</ref>

In the 2nd century AD, [[Lucian]] wrote ''[[True History]]'', a book satirizing the clearly unrealistic travelogues/adventures written by [[Ctesias]], [[Iambulus]], and [[Homer]]. He states that he was surprised they expected people to believe their lies, and stating that he, like them, has no actual knowledge or experience, but shall now tell lies as if he did. He goes on to describe a far more obviously extreme and unrealistic tale, involving interplanetary exploration, war among alien life forms, and life inside a 200 mile long whale back in the terrestrial ocean, all intended to make obvious the fallacies of books like ''[[Indica (Ctesias)|Indica]]'' and ''[[The Odyssey]]''.