Satires (Juvenal) formal literary genre rather than being simply clever, humorous critique in no particular format. Juvenal wrote in this tradition, which originated with Lucilius and included the Sermones of Horace and the Satires of Persius. In a tone and manner ranging from irony to apparent rage, Juvenal criticizes the actions and beliefs of many of his contemporaries, providing insight more into value systems and questions of morality and less into the realities of Roman life. The author employs outright obscenity less frequently than Martial or Catullus, but the scenes painted in his text are no less vivid or lurid for that
Alexander Geddes on as far as the Book of Second Chronicles and the Prayer of Manasseh which was published in 2 volumes (1792–1797). A translation of "Psalms" was published in 1807. This was followed by "Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures" (1800), in which he largely anticipated the German school of Higher Criticism. The result of this publication was Geddes's suspension from all ecclesiastical functions. Geddes was also a poet, and wrote "Linton: a Tweedside Pastoral", "Carmen Seculare pro Gallica Gente" (1790), in praise of the French Revolution. He died without recanting, but received absolution at the hands of a French priest,