Starting from the conviction that Latin literature gains from being viewed as performance, the author sees the creation of different characters or masks in Latin literature as a result of the Greco-Roman training in rhetoric. She treats the texts of Roman satire as drama and focuses on the characters whose voices are heared in these performances: the angry satirist, the mocking satirist and the smiling satirist. She goes on to explore the implications of the use of these masks for authors and audiences of satire.