Petronius Arbiter, Gaius

(died &AD; 66) Roman writer.

Of a noble family, Petronius belonged to a class of idle pleasure-seekers, but he served ably as governor of the Asian province of Bithynia and as consul in Rome. After being appointed Nero's authority on taste (hence “Arbiter”), he was accused of plotting to kill the emperor and, though innocent, committed suicide. He is the reputed author of the Satyricon, a comic picaresque novel vividly portraying contemporary Roman society through the escapades of a disreputable trio of adventurers, with unrelated stories and the author's commentaries on Roman life interspersed.