CHAPTER FOUR

PETRONIUS AND NERONIAN SOCIETY

I. ALLUSIONS TO EVENTS OF 60-65 A.D. So far we have seen that Petronius reacted to the appearance of Lucan's Pharsalia by inserting into the Satyricon a critical pastiche of Lucan. As Arbiter of Elegance, he passed judgement on an important new literary work, just as he seems to have passed judgement on the philosophy of Seneca's Letters. Possibly there might have been other notices of contemporary literature and thought, but most of that literature has been lost. The Satyricon, as is well known, is realistic in its depiction of the Mediterranean world of the author's day, and, not surprisingly, Petronius alludes also to particular events of interest to himself and his audience: apart from the appearance of the Pharsalia, one might cite once more the treasures of Dido and Caesellius Bassus (88. 8, 128). It remains to be seen whether various other events of the years 64-5 A.D. are alluded to in the Satyricon. In chapter 89, Eumolpus recites a poem on the Troiae Halosis. As this chapter was written around January 65, it is of roughly the same date as Nero's poem on the same subject and with perhaps even that title. Probably then Petronius deliberately chose the Fall of Troy as the subject of Eumolpus' clever poem. But we should not be at all justified in deducing that Petronius' poem constitutes a satire on Nero or his poetry. The TH is, in style, most akin to that of Seneca in his dramatic works, but unless sufficient portions of Nero's own poem were recovered, no decision could be reached as to what extent the TH is an imitation of Nero's style. Indeed it is difficult to see how the TH could be a parody of Nero's poetry, which appears to have been elegant and Alexan­ drian.1 If the dating of the Satyricon argued in these pages is accepted,

1 For parody, H. Bardon, Les empereurs et les lettres latines (1940), 246; J. van IJzeren, Hermeneus 25 (1954). 115ff; more cautious, Schnur 107f, and others. For the title halosis, Suet. Nero 38.6, cf. TLL VI 2520.18-20; Dio 62.18.1, 29.1 (compare the title of Tryphiodorus' HAAwau; 'D,(ou). See now G. Scheda, Hist. 16 (1967), 111-5. PETRONIUS AND NERONIAN SOCIETY the remarks of Encolpius and Eumolpus on painting and sculpture were written at the time when Nero's agents were ransacking Greece for similar works of art to replace those lost in the Fire of Rome. Here again, the Petronius passage might have been inspired by the arrival of objets-d' art in Rome, many of them destined for the domus aurea. 1 The reference to a painting not yet destroyed by age (83.1) might have reference to the fact that Nero had to replace a faded painting by Apelles, substituting one by Dorotheus.2 Grenade has demonstrated at great length that the references in the BC to extravagant building projects allude to various under­ takings of Nero; this is now all the more probable once the date of the composition of the BC has been established. Furthermore, it is easier to accept the view that the Golden House is also referred to, since it wa3 being built at the same time as the BC was being composed.3 Here again, although it is probable that Petronius alludes to these Neronian projects, it cannot be deduced that Petronius is criticising or satirising the emperor. The remarks in the BC, like the rest of Eumolpus' moralizing, are in a context that implies laughter rather than reproof; nor could it be maintained that Petronius intended to chide Nero for bringing art-treasures of Greece to Rome. There are some notable events of the early 6o's which seem to be referred to in the Satyricon. Agamemnon's preaching against the seeking for applause on the stage (5.7-8) could easily be a light-hearted reference to N era's A ugustiani, a trained body of claqueurs who applauded the emperor. Eumolpus' tasteless poem on the subject of hair (109.9-10) reminds us of Nero's poem on Poppaea's (but also Ovid's, of course); and the reference (126.7) to the fourteen rows of seats reserved for equites might have been inspired by the re-enactment of a law on the subject not long before the date of this passage. Finally, the horrid condition of Eumolpus' will, commanding his legatees to eat his body in public

1 NH 34.84: statues, violentia Neronis in urbem convecta et in sellariis domus aureae disposita. 2 NH 35.91 (an Aphrodite Anadyomene). 3 Full evidence in P. Grenade, REA I (1948) 272ff, although Grenade's dating-logic is insufficient.