Neo-Latin, satire, Rome, Baroque, Early Modern prose fiction Gian Vittorio Rossi (pseudonym Ianus Nicius Erythraeus) was an active participant in the intellectual and artistic community orbiting in Rome around Pope Urban VIII and the powerful Barberini family. Set in the fictional time and place of first-century AD Rome, Eudemiae libri VIII is a biting satire that criticizes Rossi's own society for its system of patronage and favors that he saw as rewarding wealth and opulence over skill and hard work.