Petronius's Satyricon , the only extant realistic Classical Latin novel (probably written c. AD 60), survives in a very fragmentary form. Many readers have wondered how the story would begin and end.
Between 1629 and the present several authors in various languages have attempted to round the story out. In certain cases, following a well-known conceit of historical fiction, these invented supplements have been claimed to derive from newly discovered manuscripts.
José Antonio González de Salas (born 1588, died 1654) published an edition of the Satyricon in 1629; it was reissued in 1643 with a portrait. It included linking passages (in Latin) which de Salas claimed to have taken from an earlier Paris edition, but this does not exist. It is assumed that he invented them. The only English translation that includes these passages is by W. C. Firebaugh in The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter (1922). [1]
In October, 1690, François Nodot, a French writer and mercenary soldier, announced a remarkable discovery to the French academies. A certain du Pin, a French officer, had been present at the sack of Belgrade in 1688 and came across a manuscript, a copy of which he had sent to Nodot. It proved to contain supplements to the known text of the Satyricon.
Nodot's claims were initially accepted, and the supplements were thought to be genuine. They were published as such in 1693, but soon gave rise to suspicion. They were conclusively shown to be spurious by Pieter Burmann the Elder (whose Latin edition of Petronius appeared in 1709), yet they were sometimes printed in editions of the real fragments down to the early 20th century.
The Nodot additions were translated into English by William Burnaby in 1694, into French by Héguin de Guerle, and into various other languages. Translations incorporating Nodot's supplements continued to appear in print until the early 20th century. They are currently included (in English) in at least three online versions of the Satyricon. [2] [3] [4] [5]
José Marchena Ruiz de Cueto, a Spaniard, was at Basel in 1800, attached to the staff of the French general Moreau. In his spare time he wrote scholarly notes on ancient sexuality, and eventually constructed a supplement to Petronius which illustrated his researches. He translated the fragment into French, attached the notes, and published the book as Fragmentum Petronii (Paris? 1800), claiming that the fragment was by Petronius and the translation and notes were by a certain Doctor of Theology named "Lallemand".
In Marchena's preface, dedicated to the Napoleonic Army of the Rhine, he states that he found the fragment in a manuscript of the work of Saint Gennadios on the Duties of Priests; close examination had revealed that it was a palimpsest and that this fragment formed the underlying text.
According to Stephen Gaselee "in every line it has exactly the Petronian turn of phrase."
An English translation of both text and notes is included in Firebaugh's 1922 translation, The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter . [6] The Latin text of the fragment, very rare in its original edition, is included in W.K. Kelly's 1854 translation of the Satyricon. [7]
H.C. Schnur's German translation of the Satyricon, published in 1968, includes an original supplement to the story written by the translator. [8] [9]
In 2005, Andrew Dalby published an epilogue to the Satyricon, a narrative of a dinner party set at Massilia twenty years after the dramatic date of the surviving text. [10]
Trimalchio is a character in the 1st-century AD Roman work of fiction Satyricon by Petronius. He features as the ostentatious, nouveau-riche host in the section titled the "Cēna Trīmalchiōnis". Trimalchio is an arrogant former slave who has become quite wealthy as a wine merchant. The name "Trimalchio" is formed from the Greek prefix τρις and the Semitic מלך (melech) in its occidental form Malchio or Malchus. The fundamental meaning of the root is "King", and the name "Trimalchio" would thus mean "Thrice King" or "greatest King".
In Greek mythology, Erebus, or Erebos, is the personification of darkness. In Hesiod's Theogony, he is the offspring of Chaos, and the father of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Nyx (Night); in other Greek cosmogonies, he is the father of Aether, Eros, and Metis, or the first ruler of the gods. In genealogies given by Roman authors, he begets a large progeny of personifications upon Nox, while in an Orphic theogony he is the offspring of Chronos (Time). The name "Erebus" is also used to refer either to the darkness of the Underworld, the Underworld itself, or the region through which souls pass to reach Hades, and can sometimes be used as a synonym for Tartarus or Hades.
The Satyricon, Satyriconliber, or Satyrica, is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius in the late 1st century AD, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as Titus Petronius. The Satyricon is an example of Menippean satire, which is different from the formal verse satire of Juvenal or Horace. The work contains a mixture of prose and verse ; serious and comic elements; and erotic and decadent passages. As with The Golden Ass by Apuleius, classical scholars often describe it as a Roman novel, without necessarily implying continuity with the modern literary form.
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin, and developed by the 3rd century AD into Late Latin. In some later periods, the former was regarded as good or proper Latin; the latter as debased, degenerate, or corrupted. The word Latin is now understood by default to mean "Classical Latin"; for example, modern Latin textbooks almost exclusively teach Classical Latin.
Gaius Julius Hyginus was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' De Grammaticis, 20. It is not clear whether Hyginus was a native of the Iberian Peninsula or of Alexandria.
The gens Petronia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. This gens claimed an ancient lineage, as a Petronius Sabinus is mentioned in the time of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last of the Roman kings, but few Petronii are mentioned in the time of the Republic. They are frequently encountered under the Empire, holding numerous consulships, and eventually obtaining the Empire itself during the brief reign of Petronius Maximus in AD 455.
Chariton of Aphrodisias was the author of an ancient Greek novel probably titled Callirhoe. However, it is regularly referred to as Chaereas and Callirhoe. Evidence of fragments of the text on papyri suggests that the novel may have been written in the mid 1st century AD, making it the oldest surviving complete ancient prose romance and the only one to make use of apparent historiographical features for background verisimilitude and structure, in conjunction with elements of Greek mythology, as Callirhoe is frequently compared to Aphrodite and Ariadne and Chaereas to numerous heroes, both implicitly and explicitly. As the fiction takes place in the past, and historical figures interact with the plot, Callirhoe may be understood as the first historical novel; it was later imitated by Xenophon of Ephesus and Heliodorus of Emesa, among others.
Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. He is generally believed to be the author of the Satyricon, a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Neronian era. He is one of the most important characters in Henryk Sienkiewicz' historical novel Quo Vadis (1895). Leo Genn portrays him in the 1951 film of the same name.
José Marchena Ruiz de Cueto, also known as Abate Marchena, was a Spanish author, who studied with distinction at the University of Salamanca.
Fellini Satyricon, or simply Satyricon, is a 1969 Italian surreal historical film written and directed by Federico Fellini and loosely based on Petronius's work Satyricon, written during the reign of Emperor Nero and set in Imperial Rome. The film is divided into nine episodes, following Encolpius and his friend Ascyltus as they try to win the heart of a young boy named Gitón within a surreal and dreamlike Roman landscape.
The Apocolocyntosis (divi) Claudii, literally The Pumpkinification of (the Divine) Claudius, is a satire on the Roman emperor Claudius, which, according to Cassius Dio, was written by Seneca the Younger. A partly extant Menippean satire, an anonymous work called Ludus de morte Divi Claudii in its surviving manuscripts, may or may not be identical to the text mentioned by Cassius Dio. "Apocolocyntosis" is a word play on "apotheosis", the process by which dead Roman emperors were recognized as gods.
The Milesian tale is a genre of fictional story prominent in ancient Greek and Roman literature. According to most authorities, a Milesian tale is a short story, fable, or folktale featuring love and adventure, usually of an erotic or titillating nature.
W. C. Firebaugh was the author of two works on the history of inns and taverns, and also of a fine English translation of Petronius's Satyricon, the fragmentary realistic novel of low life under the Roman Empire.
François Nodot was a mercenary soldier and author of works in Latin and French. He is best known as author of spurious supplements to the text of the Satyricon of Petronius.
Andrew Dalby, is an English linguist, translator and historian who has written articles and several books on a wide range of topics including food history, language, and Classical texts.
Alfred Richard Allinson (1852–1929) was a British academic, author, and voluminous translator of continental European literature into English. His translations were often published as by A.R. Allinson, Alfred R. Allinson, or Alfred Allinson. He was described as "an elusive literary figure about whom next to nothing is known; the title-pages of his published works are really all we have to go on."
Les Belles Lettres is a French publisher specialising in the publication of ancient texts such as the Collection Budé.
Pierre Grimal was a French historian, classicist and Latinist. Fascinated by the Greek and Roman civilizations, he did much to promote the cultural inheritance of the classical world, both among specialists and the general public.
Leonard Charles Smithers was a London bookseller and publisher associated with the Decadent movement of the late 19th century.
The Institutes is a beginners' textbook on Roman private law written around 161 CE by the classical Roman jurist Gaius. The Institutes are considered to be "by far the most influential elementary-systematic presentation of Roman private law in late antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times". The content of the textbook was considered to be lost until 1816, when a manuscript of it − probably of the 5th century − was discovered.
attributed to Oscar Wilde— Includes Nodot's supplements, but falsely lists Oscar Wilde as their author.
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