Petronius (c. AD 27-66) was a Roman writer of the Neronian age; he was a noted satirist. He is identified with C. Petronius Arbiter , but the manuscript text of the Satyricon calls him Titus Petronius . Satyricon is his sole surviving work. Contents 1...
The Roman voluptuary Petronius Arbiter (died ca. 66) is the ascribed author of the Satyricon, a fragmentary picaresque novel generally considered one of the most brilliant productions of Latin literature. The "Arbiter" of the ascribed author's name is...
"One of the most licentious and repulsive works in Roman literature" is the way W. E. H. Lecky describes the Satyrica (Satyricon, before A.D. 66) in his History of European Morals (1911). The English critic and novelist Cyril Connolly in Enemies of...
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 Satyricon, translated & with commentaries by Sarah Ruden. Hackett, 256 pages, $9.95 paper The Satyricon is the Ulysses of Roman literature. It is a comic novel intoxicated with language, with the power of verbal craft. As Joyce deploys Hamlet, so Petronius uses...
IN APRIL I was asked to open the discussion of a postgraduate student's paper at a seminar of the School of Education, University of Newcastle. The doctoral candidate was presenting a proposal for a study of school-based management in New South Wales and Victoria....
Jesse Browner has written a lush and sorrowful novel about how to die. It’s set in 66 A.D., but when it comes to our common doom, not much has changed in the last two millennia. The Uncertain Hour (Bloomsbury, $23.95)—the title is borrowed from Eliot’s...
Last week, Observer intern Vince Levy was sitting by chance near Tom O’Horgan, the octogenarian stage director idolized for directing 70’s-era shows like Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, when chummy 32-year-old actor Zach Braff approached. “I’m a tremendous fan of your work,†he told the...
In the following essay, Beck attempts to reconcile discrepancies in the character of Encolpius by considering him as two separate persons: the narrator and the subject of the narration.
In the following excerpt, Richardson states that "the Satyricon provides one of the most comprehensive accounts of homosexual activity in Roman times," stressing that Petronius used homosexual elements in his writing for their comic possibilities and that he did not view homosexuality as perverse.
In the following essay, Sullivan discusses Petronius's wide range of humor, including the humor of incongruity, literary humor, farce, mime situations, verbal wit, and satiric dialogue.
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