The first twelve lines tell us that the genre is unpopular, that the Romans have no taste, and that their apparent severity is suspect. Persius begins with a false start, quoting, or giving the illusion of quoting, a line from a supposedly inchoate work on κενο-σπουδία:

An interlocutor immediately asks him if he will find an audience for such high-minded moralising, lines 2–3:

Persius knows that satire is unpopular. But he is undeterred, expressing surprise at the interruption of his thoughts, and remaining confident and nonchalant about the superiority of his tastes. Implied is the Stoic proposition that only the wise man is a good poet: μόνον δέ φασι τον σοφόν και μάντιν αγαθόν εΤναι και ττοιητήν και ρήτορα, Stob. Ecl. vol. II p. 67, Wachsmuth. It follows that the ἄσοφος is necessarily a bad poet. Persius' uncompromising attitude is paralleled by another Stoic text, Sen. Ep. vu. 9, which Summers rightly thinks he imitates:

Besides the general similarity of situation, Persius' modification of nemo to vel duo vel nemo corresponds to Seneca's change, nemo est qui…, to aliquis fartasse, unus aut alter.