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PETRONIUS
arrestingly adapted, the gods, whom Lucan discarded, fulfil their accustomed
role, and, for a parody, the poem is inordinately long. It could, one must admit,
have been intended to be exemplary, though few have seen any merits in it.
We had best seek guidance from its context. Eumolpus (who is presented
elsewhere as a scoundrel, if not a charlatan) offers it as a specimen of the
elevated treatment which the subject demands of a poet, as against the mundane
treatment which should properly be left to historians. And Lucan, we remember,
was commonly abused for writing like a historian, not a poet. Petronius, it
may be, had as little regard for traditional epic, purveyed by Eumolpus and
his like, as for current innovations. His shrewd contemporary, Persius, was
certainly disillusioned about all such effusions. And, since the De bello civili
contains enough phrases and rhythms similar to Lucan's to argue, though not
to prove, that Petronius knew something of Lucan's work, he may wish to
point the irony of a conservative like Eumolpus being infected by modern
vices. If so, Lucan is indirectly criticized. Much the same implicit criticism may
be found in the iambic piece. Though not a parody of Seneca, it illustrates
how easily vapid iambics, not unlike Seneca's, can be strung together.
Both in incident and character Petronius' novel is highly realistic, indeed
startlingly so, if compared with sentimental romances. Violence, vulgarity, and
decadence disfigure the society which he depicts. His erotic scenes are sometimes
titillating, sometimes callously comic, sometimes both: but sympathetic
humour is almost as hard to find here as sentiment. However, in his description
of Trimalchio's party (26.7—79.7) we are feasted with humour, of a hilariously
rumbustious brand. Petronius' presentation of the freedman millionaire and
his cronies is as adept as it is original. No one had hitherto so fully portrayed
the thoughts, attitudes, and mode of speech of a specific social class, and at that
a low one, though something at least comparable had been effected in comedy
and mime. And Petronius is not content with caricature. Beneath a brash and
ridiculous facade he discloses unrealizable aspirations and chronic insecurity.
His Trimalchio is a complex character: he now wallows in luxury and selfdeception,
but was once resilient and faced a hard world on its own terms.
For all his coarseness and ostentation he is not utterly unlikable.
After every allowance for the fragmentation of our text, the novel still
seems very episodic, and the episodes seem to vary considerably in scale.
Occasionally topics of general interest (education, for instance) are handled
at length, and the narrative slows down. Such fluctuation of tempo and the
generous treatment of many details may reinforce the manuscript evidence
(sometimes questioned) for sixteen or more books. References to several
episodes now lost add confirmation. And the scene must have changed more
than once. The parts of the story we have are centred somewhere in Campania,
after escapades at Massilia. Doubtless Encolpius moved on, as those who live
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