Petronius Arbiter
Petronius Arbiter,author of the extant Satyrica, possibly identical with Petronius, the politician and arbiter elegantiae at the court of Nero, forced to suicide in AD 66. Given that scholars now agree that the Satyrica belongs stylistically and in terms of factual detail to the Neronian period, and that Tacitus' account of the courtier Petronius describes a hedonistic, witty, and amoral character which would well suit the author of the Satyrica (Annales 16. 17–20), many find it economic to identify the two, but the matter is beyond conclusive proof; the occurrence of the name Titus Petronius Arbiter in the MSS of the Satyrica gives no aid, since this may simply be the supplement of a later copyist who had read Tacitus.
Of the Satyrica itself we seem to have fragments of books 14, 15, and 16, with book 15 practically complete, containing the Cena Trimalchionis (26....
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