SOURCE: "Petronius: Satirist, Moralist, Epicurean, Artist," The Classical Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 4, February, 1969, pp. 49-50, 64.

In the following essay, Schmeling considers Petronius's intent in the Satyricon, concluding that the author sought to entertain, and that the moral aspects of the satire are present only as a part of the means to the end of producing art.

In 1941 Gilbert Highet noted that Petronius, writing as a satirist, ought also to be considered a moralist.¹ This was novel and perhaps even a bit shocking. In 1963 Oskar Raith proposed that Petronius be regarded as an Epicurean, but one without a moral stance.² William Nethercut³ proposed (perhaps on the analogy of Highet's satirist-equals-moralist theory) that just as surely as Petronius had adopted the position of an Epicurean, so he had assumed "the posture of one who relates observation from an ethical standpoint to a clearly defined situation, [and thus] can be fairly grouped...