The Satyricon of Petronius The Satyricon of Petronius
Gaius Petronius (~27-66 A.D.), the author of the Satyricon, was the emperor Nero's advisor in matters of luxury and extravagance (his unofficial title was arbiter elegantiae). As befitted his office, he slept days and partied nights. He was a lover of style, manners, and literature, and his personality was characterized by freedom, a lack of self-consciousness, a loose tongue, and an attitude. A rival's jealousy turned Nero agains Petronius, and he was forced to commit suicide. However, before his death, he lampooned Nero in his will and sent the emperor a copy.
The emperor Nero was interested in literature and art, especially theater. He fancied himself as a sort of reincarnation of Apollo, and liked to display his talents and be praised. His artistic obsessions and extravagant buildings brought him ridicule. Nero's court was distinguished by its immorality and extravagance. Everyone's primary goal was making lots of money. Because there was so much leisure for the very rich, strong ambition and responsibility were required for almost anything at all to be accomplished. Life at court was uncertain because Nero was capricious. Literature was used for flattery, personal advancement, advocacy of your own position, and destruction of your opponent's position. The literary arms of the establishment included censorship, prosecution, libel suits, and that old standby, physical attacks.
Unconventional and unique, the Satyricon stands almost alone in literature. It touches on everything, especially small-town life and ordinary people. Its characters are mostly of Greek or Near Eastern origin and are probably based on real people; Trimalchio's house has a lot in common with Nero's court. Some of the characters' names have given rise to much interesting etymological speculation: the name of Encolpius, our narrator, means "in the fold," or more explicitly here, "in the crotch"; his friend is named Ascyltos, or "unwearied," and they fight over the affections of the boy Giton ("neighbor").
The Satyricon was probably written around 61 A.D.and first printed in 1664. It is a very long work, of which we only have fragments. Petronius probably read it in installments to his friends, and possibly to the court of Nero. The Cena is one of the longer fragments; its survival in its entirety suggests that people have been enjoying it as a separable story for a long time. A banquet is the traditional setting for the kind of light conversation that is featured in the Cena.
The Satyricon itself, as its name implies, is a satire. The origin of the word "satire" has been a subject for academic debate: some say it comes from satura, or medley, while others theorize that it refers to something which is goat-like, like a satyr (smelly, rude, unkempt, and hairy?). Petronius satirizes anything and everything, using taste as the only standard. This is NOT a moralistic story intended to produce reform, as we often imagine a satire to be. We never know Petronius's own opinion (although he warns prudes not to criticize his story), because he doesn't give it to us directly. The only opinions we have are those of the characters in the story. Encolpius, as we shall see, criticizes Trimalchio, but Encolpius is no great prize either, so what is his criticism worth?
More specifically, the Satyricon is a Menippean satire. This genre, originally a humorous discussion of philosophy in alternating prose and verse, is characterized by the use of many different styles. In the Satyricon, accordingly, we find proverbs, verse, interpolated stories, and varied levels of language (from the very vulgar to the very elegant).
Some of the stories told by Trimalchio's guests are part of the genre called Milesian tales. These are funny, often questionable, stories characterized by a great deal of variety and incongruity in their plots, and by lots of digressions. They have a lot in common with the more outlandish controversiae of the rhetorical schools, as we shall see.
The Satyricon is set in Campania, which is the region around Naples and Mt. Vesuvius, in the middle of Italy. The advantage of this setting for us, paradoxically, is the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Two nearby towns, Pompeii and Herculaneum, were completely destroyed but in such a way that an unusual number of antiquities of this date were preserved by being covered with ash or mud. We have many resources at our disposal to help us learn about life in Mediterranean countries at this time, which enables us to visualize what life was like for Petronius and the characters of the Satyricon.
Pompeii was a walled town, densely built up with little wasted space. In the center of town was the Forum, an open space off-limits to wheeled vehicles. The Forum had three functions: religious, civic/governmental, and commercial. There were buildings around the perimeter of the Forum for each function. Gladiator contests were held in the open center. In Chapter 4, Encolpius and his friends will be discussing an upcoming contest in which the combatants will fight to the death. This was a rare and special treat; animals and people were too expensive to sacrifice in that way very often.
Houses and baths made up the rest of Pompeii. As we shall see, the baths were a vitally important aspect of Roman social life. The city streets did double duty as sewers also; there were stepping stones to make crossing easier. Often the owner of a house would rent out the first floor to a small shopkeeper.
The houses had no exterior windows (why would they want to look out into the sewer?); all the windows looked inward to the atrium. On the walls were paintings which allowed you to imagine you were looking out into an unreal world. Fake columns, perspectives, historical or religious scenes, sacred landscapes, and abstract designs all ornamented the walls of a Roman house. What you didn't paint on the walls was your life story, as we shall see that Trimalchio has done. Holes in the roof let in light and air, but, as you can imagine, the light inside was very dim. At the entrance to the house was the lararium, a shrine to your ancestors and protecting genii.
Trimalchio probably has a house outside the city walls, unrestricted in size and with actual windows, not unlike that of the emperor Tiberius. This emperor, who was old and paranoid, lived in a country villa on the island of Capri and used to dump people he considered suspicious over the cliffs.
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