The Satyricon (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.


 



The
Satyricon offers a mocking, insider’s glimpse into the most excessively decadent, cruel, and contradictory aspects of life in Nero’s Rome. A series of wandering, debauchery-filled tales, starring a picaresque anti-hero named Encolpius, the text leaves no stone unturned in its relentlessly humorous battle against all forms of bad taste. It is considered by many to be the crown jewel of Roman literary achievement.

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Most of what we know about Gaius Petronius (or Petronius Arbiter) comes from Tacitus’
Annals. Herein, we learn that Petronius’ lifestyle mocked that of the hard-working Marcus Catoesque, ‘new man’ of the Roman Republic. He is said to have slept during the day and to have worked at night in the science of pleasure.