Editing Satyricon (section)

==Analysis==
===Date and authorship===
The date of the ''Satyricon'' was controversial in 19th- and 20th-century scholarship, with dates proposed as varied as the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD.<ref name="harrisonxvi">Harrison (1999), p. xvi.</ref> A consensus on this issue now exists. A date under [[Nero]] (1st century AD) is indicated by the work's social background<ref>{{cite journal |author=R. Browning|date=May 1949 |title=The Date of Petronius |journal=Classical Quarterly |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=12–14 |doi=10.1017/s0009840x00094270|s2cid=162540839 }}</ref> and in particular by references to named popular entertainers.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Henry T. Rowell |year=1958 |title=The Gladiator Petraites and the Date of the ''Satyricon'' |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |volume=89 |pages=14–24 |doi=10.2307/283660 |jstor=283660 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press }}</ref><ref name="rose">{{cite journal |author=K. F. C. Rose |date=May 1962 |title=The Date of the ''Satyricon'' |journal=Classical Quarterly |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=166–168 |doi=10.1017/S0009838800011721 |s2cid=170460020 }}</ref>

Evidence in the author's style and literary concerns also indicate that this was the period during which he was writing. Except where the ''Satyricon'' imitates colloquial language, as in the speeches of the freedmen at Trimalchio's dinner, its style corresponds with the literary prose of [[Silver Age of Latin literature|the period]]. Eumolpus' poem on the Civil War and the remarks with which he prefaces it (118–124) are generally understood as a response to the ''[[Pharsalia]]'' of the Neronian poet [[Marcus Annaeus Lucanus|Lucan]].<ref name="rose"/><ref>Courtney, pp. 8, 183–189</ref>

Similarly, Eumolpus's poem on the [[Trojan War|capture of Troy]] (89) has been related to Nero's ''Troica'' and to the tragedies of [[Seneca the Younger]],<ref>Courtney, pp. 141–143</ref> and parody of Seneca's ''[[Epistulae morales ad Lucilium|Epistles]]'' has been detected in the moralizing remarks of characters in the ''Satyricon''.<ref>{{cite journal |author=J. P. Sullivan |year=1968 |title=Petronius, Seneca, and Lucan: A Neronian Literary Feud? |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |volume=99 |pages=453–467  |doi=10.2307/2935857 |jstor=2935857 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}</ref> There is disagreement about the value of some individual arguments but, according to S. J. Harrison, "almost all scholars now support a Neronian date" for the work.<ref name="harrisonxvi"/>

The manuscripts of the ''Satyricon'' ascribe the work to a "Petronius Arbiter", while a number of ancient authors ([[Macrobius]], [[Sidonius Apollinaris]], [[Gaius Marius Victorinus|Marius Victorinus]], [[Diomedes Grammaticus|Diomedes]] and [[Jerome]]) refer to the author as "Arbiter". The name Arbiter is likely derived from Tacitus' reference to a courtier named [[Petronius]] as Nero's ''arbiter elegantiae'' or fashion adviser (''Annals'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Tac.%20Ann.%2016.18.2 16.18.2]). That the author is the same as this courtier is disputed. Many modern scholars accept the identification, pointing to a perceived similarity of character between the two and to possible references to affairs at the Neronian court.<ref>e.g., Courtney, pp. 8–10</ref> Other scholars consider this identification "beyond conclusive proof".<ref>Harrison (2003) pages 1149–1150</ref>

===Genre===
The ''Satyricon'' is considered one of the gems of Western literature, and, according to Branham, it is the earliest of its kind in Latin.<ref name="Branham97p18">{{Cite book|last=Branham |first=R. Bracht |page=xvi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XrNEns3_yd0C&pg=PR18|title=Satyrica|date=1997-07-11|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21118-6|language=en}}</ref> Petronius mixes together two antithetical genres: the [[Cynicism (philosophy)|cynic]] and [[parodic]] [[menippean satire]], and the [[Idealization and devaluation|idealizing]] and [[Sentimentalism (literature)|sentimental]] Greek [[Romance (heroic literature)|romance]].<ref name="Branham97p18"/> The mixing of these two radically contrasting genres generates the sophisticated humor and ironic tone of ''Satyricon''.<ref name="Branham97p18"/>

The name “satyricon” implies that the work belongs to the type to which [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]], imitating the Greek [[Menippus]], had given the character of a medley of prose and verse composition. But the string of fictitious narrative by which the medley is held together is something quite new in Roman literature. The author was happily inspired in his devices for amusing himself and thereby transmitted to modern times a text based on the ordinary experience of contemporary life; the precursor of such novels as ''[[Gil Blas]]'' by [[Alain-René Lesage]] and ''[[The Adventures of Roderick Random]]'' by [[Tobias Smollett]]. It reminds the well-read protagonist of [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]]'s ''[[À rebours]]'' of certain nineteenth-century French novels: "In its highly polished style, its astute observation, its solid structure, he could discern curious parallels and strange analogies with the handful of modern French novels he was able to tolerate."<ref>''Against Nature,'' trans. Margaret Mauldon (Oxford, 1998), p. 26.</ref>