Past Perfect: Among the Vulgarians - The BAS Library
Login
Home > Magazines > Archaeology Odyssey > September/October 2003

Past Perfect: Among the Vulgarians

The first-century A.D. satirist Petronius lampoons Nero’s Rome

The author of the Satyricon, one of the greatest satires in Western literature, is known to us simply as Petronius (c. 27–66 A.D.). He was probably—but not certainly—the historical figure Gaius Petronius Niger, a member of Emperor Nero’s court who served as governor of Bithynia (in present-day Turkey) in 62 A.D. The next year Nero appointed Gaius Petronius Niger as his arbiter elegantiarum, or adviser on good taste. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, “The emperor thought nothing charming or elegant in luxury unless Petronius had expressed his approval.” In 66 A.D., Petronius, having been falsely implicated in a […]

Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.

Join the BAS Library!

Already a library member? Log in here.

Footnotes

1.

The ostentatious Trimalchio delights in all that’s artificial; even the colorful fruits he serves his guests are meant to simulate a fire burning beneath a griddle.

2.

From his close-cropped head—the mark of a slave or former slave—to his napkin decorated with the broad purple stripe worn by senators on their togas, Trimalchio is a veritable popinjay.

3.

But luck was with the canny Trimalchio. Born a slave in the Asiatic provinces, Trimalchio was brought to Rome, where he learned bookkeeping, obtained his freedom from his master Pompeius and parlayed his knack for business into millions.