ABSTRACT

I. The Literary and Social Background a l t h o u g h Petronius is regarded as one o f the most ‘modern" o f ancient authors because o f his very direct appeal to us, the brute critical fact is that the Satyricon is one o f the strangest and most untypical works that have come down to us from classical antiquity. The seductive feeling o f modernity, due partly to its resemblance to some contemporary novels, has been a stumblingblock to any literary discussion o f the work. Such discussion has been generally confined to Quellenforschungy to a consideration o f the models Petronius used for various episodes. Until this feeling o f unclassical ‘modernity" and this feeling o f strangeness are resolved, the understanding requisite to correct evaluation is impossible. In what follows I shall try to suggest why the Satyricon is what it is and not any other thing, and how the work is as much as any other work a product o f the circumstances o f its age and its author, and how such an understanding allows us to comment on its merits and evaluate its originality.