Petronius (C. or T. Petronius Arbiter), who is reasonably
identified with the author of this famous satyric and satiric
novel, was a man of pleasure and of good literary taste who
flourished in the times of Claudius (41-54 CE) and Nero (54-68). As
Tacitus describes him, he used to sleep by day, and attend to
official duties or to his amusements by night. At one time he was
governor of the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor and was also a
consul, showing himself a man of vigour when this was required.
Later he lapsed into indulgence (or assumed the mask of vice) and
became a close friend of Nero. Accused by jealous Tigellinus of
disloyalty and condemned, with self-opened veins he conversed
lightly with friends, dined, drowsed, sent to Nero a survey of
Nero's sexual deeds, and so died, 66 CE.
The surviving parts of Petronius's romance "Satyricon" mix
philosophy and real life, prose and verse, in a tale of the
disreputable adventures of Encolpius and two companions, Ascyltus
and Giton. In the course of their wanderings they attend a showy
and wildly extravagant dinner given by a rich freedman, Trimalchio,
whose guests talk about themselves and life in general. Other
incidents are a shipwreck and somewhat lurid proceedings in South
Italy. The work is written partly in pure Latin, but sometimes
purposely in a more vulgar style. It parodies and otherwise attacks
bad taste in literature, pedantry and hollow society.
"Apocolocyntosis," "Pumpkinification" (instead of deification),
is probably by Seneca the wealthy philosopher and courtier (ca. 4
BCE-65 CE). It is a medley of prose and verse and a political
satire on the Emperor Claudius written soon after he died in 54 CE
and wasdeified.
General
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