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Petronius Arbiter, 20-66

We have 9 books for this author.


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Quotations at Wikiquote
Works at Project Gutenberg
Works at Domínio Público
Works at Dominio Público

This article is about the Roman author Petronius. For other uses of the name, see Petronius (disambiguation).

Petronius (ca. 27–66) was a Roman writer of the Neronian age; he was a noted satirist. He is identified with Gaius Petronius Arbiter, but the manuscript text of the Satyricon calls him Titus Petronius.

Life and work

His sole surviving work, the Satyricon, reveals nothing directly of his fortunes, position, or even century. Some lines of Sidonius Apollinaris, from his Carmen XXIII, refer to him and are often taken to imply that he lived and wrote at Massilia. If, however, one accepts the identification of this author with the Petronius of Tacitus, Nero's courtier, it follows either that he was born in Massilia, or that Sidonius refers to the novel itself and that its scene was partly laid at Massilia.

The chief personages of the story are evidently strangers in the towns of Southern Italy. Their Greek-sounding names (Encolpius, Ascyltos, Giton, etc.) and literary training accord with the characteristics of the old Greek colony in the 1st century. The high position among Latin writers ascribed by Sidonius to Petronius, and the mention of him by Macrobius beside Menander among the humorists, when compared with the absolute silence of Quintilian, Juvenal and Martial, seem adverse to the opinion that the Satyricon was a work of the age of Nero. But Quintilian was concerned with writers who could be turned to use in the education of an orator.

In fiction

There are many references to and elaborations on Petronius' Satyricon, which can be found there. Petronius himself appears as a character in:

the novel Quo Vadis and its versions, where C. Petronius is the preferred courtier of Nero, using his wit to adulate and mock him at the same time. He is horrified at Nero's burning of Rome.
in Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Door into Summer, where the protagonist's cat is named "Petronius the Arbiter".
in Jesse Browner's novel The Uncertain Hour, which recounts Petronius' final banquet and suicide (as told by Tacitus, Annals 16).
in Anthony Burgess's novel " The Kingdom of the Wicked", Gaius Petronius appears as a major character, an advisor to Nero.
in the Waldorf play, Road to Damascus, where Petronius is Nero's advisor.

In film

In the 1951 film of Quo Vadis, Petronius is portrayed by Leo Genn, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Petronius and his work the Satyricon are mentioned in an episode of the 1950's TV western "Have Gun, Will Travel".

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

Works by Petronius at Project Gutenberg
Latin text of the Satyricon from The Latin Library

This biographical information was gathered from the Petronius_Arbiter page, courtesy of the Wikipedia project.

Books

The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter
The Satyricon — Complete
The Satyricon — Volume 01: Introduction
The Satyricon — Volume 02: Dinner of Trimalchio
The Satyricon — Volume 03: Encolpius and His Companions
The Satyricon — Volume 04 : Escape by Sea
The Satyricon — Volume 05: Crotona Affairs
The Satyricon — Volume 06: Editor's Notes
The Satyricon — Volume 07: Marchena Notes

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