About one half of the shorter poems, and more than half of the epigrams, are to be classed among his personal lampoons or light satiric pieces.
"The Roman Poets of the Republic"
W. Y. Sellar
But the original satura, which also was familiar to the Romans before they became acquainted with Greek literature, was somewhat different both from the Fescennine verses, and from the lampoons which arose out of them.
"The Roman Poets of the Republic"
W. Y. Sellar
When Fielding tried to make use of the taste for political lampoons, the result was the Act of Parliament which in 1737 introduced the licensing system.
"English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century"
Leslie Stephen