The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter
1932
The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter
1932
Translated by William, 1673? Burnaby
The Satyricon is the world's first novel, a fragmentary masterpiece from first-century Rome that reads like it was written last Tuesday. Follow Encolpius and his beautiful young companion Giton as they stumble through the Roman Empire's southern provinces, bickering, seducing, getting robbed, and stumbling into increasingly absurd encounters. Petronius skewers the newly rich, the pretentious, and the powerful with a savage eye. The most famous set piece, Trimalchio's Feast, depicts a freed slave's dinner party so lavish and vulgar it makes modern reality TV look restrained. This is ancient literature that smells like wine and perfume, that bites. It's dirty, funny, and surprisingly tender. Walsh's translation captures the roll and snap of the original Latin. Whether you're drawn to the origins of the novel, the corrupt world of Nero's Rome, or simply a story that refuses to moralize, The Satyricon endures because it understands that humans have always been ridiculous, especially when trying to be respectable.
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“Can't you see that I'm only advising you to beg yourself not to be so dumb?””
— Petronius Arbiter
“Nothing is falser than people's preconceptions and ready-made opinions; nothing is sillier than their sham morality...””
— Petronius Arbiter
“Everyone will find what he's looking for. Nothing pleases everyone: this man gathers thorns, that one roses.””
— Petronius Arbiter
“I said everything that a painful swelling in one's libido tells one to say.””
— Petronius Arbiter
“No man on earth may look on forbidden things as you have done and escape punishment. Especially here, a land so infested with divinity that one might meet a god more easily than a man.””
— Petronius Arbiter
“utres inflati ambulamus. minoris quam muscae sumus, muscae tamen aliquam uirtutem habent, nos non pluris sumus quam bullae.””
— Petronius Arbiter
“After all, I was once like you are, but being the right sort I got where I am.””
— Petronius Arbiter
“Wine there! Wine and dice! Tomorrow's fears shall fools alone benumb! By the ear Death pulls me. 'Live!' he whispers softly, 'Live! I come.””
— Petronius Arbiter
“The trader trusts his fortune to the sea and takes his gains, The warrior, for his deeds, is girt with gold;The wily sycophant lies drunk on purple counterpanes, Young wives must pay debauchees or they're cold.But solitary, shivering, in tatters Genius stands Invoking a neglected art, for succor at its hands.””
— Petronius Arbiter
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Arbiter, Petronius. The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-satyricon-of-petronius-arbiter-4bfabce8-4a88-4c4f-8395-441b96157e24.Arbiter, P. (1932). The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-satyricon-of-petronius-arbiter-4bfabce8-4a88-4c4f-8395-441b96157e24Arbiter, Petronius. The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-satyricon-of-petronius-arbiter-4bfabce8-4a88-4c4f-8395-441b96157e24.
