'Satyricon' consists of many stories. It is a colorful collection of tell-tales of literate and common people, which went from tongue to tongue in a world without wireless mass media, but which shouldn't be taken too seriously, neither at the time, nor today.

Predecessors of such tell-tale stories can be found in the so called Milesian Novel, a Greek literal feature, which consists of a large amount of folk stories, tied together by a very faint red thread. An example of such a story in Petronius' 'Satyricon' is the tale of the 'Ephesian Widow'.

Next to these tales, Petronius focused on a central theme in his novel, which forms the core of his story and which is the starting point of all kinds of tales and folk stories, told by side characters in the novel, which come up and disappear again after telling their story. A novel with a clear core story and core characters is a novel according to the example of the so called Menippeic Novel in Greek literature.

Within the core or basic story, a band of characters appear with a typical and lively description, the main players of Petronius' novel:

Encolpius, a young chap and a student, somewhat worn down by the way students, who weren't that rich, had to live. Because of an unhappy event, early in the story, he has become impotent and the rest of his adventures are focused on his regaining what was lost.

Ascyltos, Encolpius' companion and fellow student, young, gay and merry. He doesn't seem to have any of the problems his fellow student is coping with.

Giton, their very young personal slave, at variable times and occasions dear to either Encolpius or Ascyltos (2).

Eumolpus, a raggedy poet, who meets up with the other three on the road and decides to travel along with them.

The four of them meet with adventures which can be called strange, remarkable and saucy. During their travels they meet and stay with people who tell stories of the Milesian kind.

The largest part of the novel, a novel which unfortunately has not been handed down completely, is a section called 'Cena Trimalchionis', or the dinner at Trimalchio's. Encolpius, Ascyltos, Giton and Eumolpus arrive at the estate of a local rich man called Trimalchio, who happens to be a freedman. They are invited by him and his wife Fortunata in a more than wealthy villa, to a kind of dinner they haven't witnessed yet and will likely not witness again, given for the mass of friends to the master of the house.

The 'Cena' invites us to an introduction to the man Trimalchio and his circle. This freedman, who once was nothing and had become somthing, irritantly boasts his wealth, his power related to city affairs, his possessions and all he is capable of. He and his guests, all nouveaux riches, haven't got any moral upbringing or literal education, but because they have been freed and have become rich they want to cover this up by showing eachother all their prestige. The host boasts his guests into the ground with his guest meal, pulls out the wildest stunts with his served dishes and tells stories about himself, particularly about how he got rich.

These facts are told in a language, which is very rare in Latin literature. Petronius was a master in using 'freedmen's speech'(3), when he brings out his freedmen in Trimalchio's villa and elsewhere in his novel. Although some artificial freedom and exaggeration in this respect should always be taken into consideration, this feature of freedmen's speech is one of the very few in Latin literature which have been handed down to us and it gives us an insight into how the common Roman-of-the-street might have spoken his Latin. A study of this freedmen's speech in Petronius' novel has led to some conculsions about the whereabouts of the action of the story's place of action. Many linguists have come to the conclusion that the story, at least the 'Cena Trimalchionis' part, might have taken place in a setting around the Naples or Pompeii area, or perhaps in the former Magna Graecia (i.e. Southern Italy). Because of the fact that many Latin words have been 'Graecified' in their flections or endings, linguists have come to the conclusion that Petronius likes to suggest, that most of his freedmen have been Greek or Macedonian slaves, who only started to learn some Latin during the last years of their slavery or after they had just been freed and gone into business, where it was obligatory to speak some Latin. These people, of course, had not much of an education, not even to mention any literal education. It is only correct and realistic of Petronius to let these freedmen speak their very own tongue, the freedmen's speech.

'Cena Trimalchionis' seems a bit overdone now and then, but it is not a scene completely overdone.

Petronius dealt enough with freedmen at Nero's Court and he might have used some of the speech and the way of talking and storytelling of these characters for his novel. In this way, one might see this aspect of the 'Satyricon' as a slight parody to the ways of the emperor's court.

1. Several variations of Petronius' name have been handed down by literal history: C(aius) Petronius Arbiter; T(itus) Petronius. It is not sure which name is the true one, since not much is known of the man in the contemporary historical setting. The only known manuscripts of the 'Satyricon' give either the name T. Petronius or C. Petronius (Arbiter), whereas Tacitus writes about the man and his way of life, referring to C. Petronius (Annales, XVI, 17). Both descriptions seem to fit the same person, Nero's arbiter elegantiae, but the names are different. This discrepancy has not yet been solved completely.

2. These matters might seem quite foul to us nowadays, but one should take into consideration that these descriptions were quite normal in ancient novels, given the role they played in ancient Greek and Roman social life. Furthermore, social behaviour was quite different as well, especially among common people, who didn't have to take elevated social behaviour into consideration and could do their things 'more in the open'. Nowadays, we would call the 'fumbling around' with Giton abuse, but back then the boy was a slave and his owner could, more or less, act upon him as he pleased. These 'sexual tendencies' and likewise actions play a role within the novel, as they do within the novel's rendition into a movie by Federico Fellini in the 60's of the 20th century, but they are not that important and Petronius only grants them a place in his story as far as they could be considered as an intricate part of the story's atmosphere.

3. Vide: Nelson, H.L.W., Petronius en zijn 'vulgair' Latijn, parts 1 & 2, Alphen a/d Rijn (doctoral thesis), 1947.

Literature:

Nelson, H.L.W., Petronius en zijn 'vulgair' Latijn, parts 1 & 2, Alphen a/d Rijn (doctoral thesis), 1947.

Smith, M.S. (ed.), Petronius, Cena Trimalchionis, text, commentary and essays, Oxford, 1975.

Laurence, R., Roman Pompeii, Space and Society, London, 1994.

Courtney, E., A Companion to Petronius, Oxford, 2001.