The Satyricon — Volume 06: Editor's Notes

This volume contains the extensive editorial apparatus from the landmark 1922 edition that introduced Petronius's scandalous masterpiece to modern readers. The editor's notes provide essential context for navigating one of antiquity's most riotously transgressive texts: a fragmented Roman novel that reads like a screwball comedy written by someone who witnessed the fall of civilizations. Through the wanderings of Encolpius, a retired gladiator navigating the brothels, banquet halls, and con artist's dens of Nero's Rome, Petronius crafted a vicious satire of the empire's elite that somehow survived centuries of suppression. These notes illuminate the historical underworlds the text depicts, from the mechanics of ancient prostitution to the elaborate code of sexual barter that underpinned Roman high society. Firebaugh's translation preserves the vernacular swagger that makes the original feel startlingly contemporary, while Norman Lindsay's illustrations capture the frank eroticism that got the book banned for centuries. For readers ready to encounter an ancient text that feels urgency and invention, these editorial notes serve as your guide to a world of outrageous wealth, desperate lust, and blistering irony.