LEGITE ME MORTUUM:
READING THE CENA TRIMALCHIONIS AS A ROMAN FUNERAL
by
STEWART CHANDLER TARVIN
(Under the Direction of T. Keith Dix)
ABSTRACT
This thesis addresses the problem of interpreting the Cena Trimalchionis episode in
Petronius‘ Satyrica. It offers a reading strategy to interpret the entire Cena through the context of Roman funeral rituals and funeral games.
INDEX WORDS: Cena Trimalchionis, death in literature, freedmen, funeral rites and ceremonies, Latin literature, munera, Petronius, Roman novel, Roman social history, Satyrica
LEGITE ME MORTUUM:
READING THE CENA TRIMALCHIONIS AS A ROMAN FUNERAL
by
STEWART CHANDLER TARVIN
BA, The University of Georgia, 2005
A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
ATHENS, GEORGIA
2011
© 2011
Stewart Chandler Tarvin
All Rights Reserved
LEGITE ME MORTUUM:
READING THE CENA TRIMALCHIONIS AS A ROMAN FUNERAL
by
STEWART CHANDLER TARVIN
Major Professor: T. Keith Dix
Committee: Erika T. Hermanowicz Naomi J. Norman
Electronic Version Approved:
Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2011
To my past, present, and future students: you are monuments more lasting than bronze
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1
2 COMMENTARY ...... 9
3 ANALYSIS ...... 27
4 CONCLUSIONS...... 48
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 55
APPENDIX ...... 59
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This thesis will focus on death ritual and spectacle entertainment in Petronius‘ Cena
Trimalchionis. It will provide readers with a detailed commentary on spectacles in the Cena as well as an analysis of and reading strategy for this complex text. In the Cena (Satyrica 26-78),
Encolpius (Petronius‘ first-person narrator), Ascyltos, and Giton attend a dinner party hosted by
Trimalchio, a wealthy freedman, as umbrae (shadows) of Agamemnon. As Encolpius recounts his experience at the Cena, it becomes clear that he does not understand much of what happens.
For example, why are elements of gladiatorial combat or theatrical entertainment part of a dinner party? This thesis explains most of these spectacles as munera (gifts in honor of the dead), which belong to two major categories: ludi scaenici (theatrical shows) and ludi funebres (athletic competitions, chariot races, or gladiatorial shows). Therefore, we can view the entire Cena as a funeral— a celebration of Trimalchio‘s life as a freedman and an anticipation of his death.
Most scholars begin discussion of the Satyrica with the identity of Petronius and the state of the text.1 This thesis accepts the identification of the author Petronius Arbiter as the historical personality whom Tacitus names as Nero‘s arbiter elegantiae (judge of good taste).2 As Caroline
Vout notes, this identification narrows the date of publication, and it allows us to narrow our
1 See, for instance, these introductions: Jonathan Prag and Ian Repath, Petronius: A Handbook (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 5-10; Victoria Rimell, ―Letting the Page Run On: Poetics, Rhetoric, and Noise in the Satyrica‖ in Petronius: A Handbook ed. Jonathan Prag and Ian Repath (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 1- 9; Edward Courtney, A Companion to Petronius (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 5-11; Gareth Schmeling, ―Petronius and the Satyrica‖ in Latin Fiction: The Latin Novel in Context ed. Heinz Hofmann (London: Routledge, 1999), 23-28; Niall Slater, Reading Petronius (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 7-14. 2 Tac. Ann. 16.18: dein revolutus ad vitia seu vitiorum imitatione inter paucos familiarium Neroni adsumptus est, elegantiae arbiter, dum nihil amoenum et molle adfluentia putat, nisi quod ei Petronius adprobavisset.
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discussion to spectacula popular either during Nero‘s reign (54-68 CE) or before.3 Such a publication date by an author so closely acquainted with Nero‘s court permits and encourages comparison between Petronius‘ Trimalchio and Nero himself. Although the text of the Satyrica comes to us in a fragmented state, the Cena is the most nearly complete and continuous episode.
This does not completely eliminate textual issues, but the continuity helps protect the sense of a plot.4 Likewise, this thesis does not dispute or debate what scholars have shown about the
Satyrica‘s status as a novel (although this term is anachronistic), but it encourages the view that
Petronius blended features from several genres to craft the Satyrica.5 Finally, this thesis challenges the perception that modern readers cannot interpret the Cena.
This thesis focuses on a variety of staged episodes which resemble public entertainment or spectacles. The verb spectare (to look at, watch) lies at the root of the Latin word spectaculum. Therefore, spectaculum means ―sight, spectacle.‖6 Encolpius describes
Trimalchio‘s ballgame at the baths as a spectaculum: nec tam pueri nos, quamquam erat operae pretium, ad spectaculum duxerant, quam ipse pater familiae, qui soleatus pila prasina exercebatur, ―it was not so much the boys that led us to this sight (although they were top quality!) as the master himself who, in sandals, was exercising with a green ball‖ (27). Petronius also puts the Greek loan word acroama (an item in an entertainment) into Encolpius‘ mouth at the end of the Cena: Ibat res ad summam nauseam, cum Trimalchio ebrietate turpissima gravis novum acroama cornicines, in triclinium iussit adduci (78). This supports the notion that
3 Caroline Vout, ―The Satyrica and Neronian Culture‖ (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 101: ―When betting on the date of the Satyrica, the smart money is on late in the reign of Nero.‖ 4 John Bodel offers a counterpoint, arguing that focusing on the Cena obscures our view of the rest of the Satyrica, ―battered‖ as this text may be: ―The Cena Trimalchionis‖ in Latin Fiction: The Latin Novel in Context ed. Heinz Hofman (London: Routledge, 1999), 38. 5 The work blends elements of poetry and prose (prosimetrum) and contains elements of Greek prose fiction and Roman satire. Niall Slater (1990), 20-23, compares this to modern expectations for a novel and for a cookbook: ―a recipe in a cookbook is expected, but one in a novel is an interesting surprise.‖ 6 OLD spectaculum, 1.
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Encolpius recognizes Trimalchio‘s staging of events within the Cena. The diversity of spectacula in the historical record ranges from Trimalchio‘s ballgame to Augustus‘ mock naval battles and gladiatorial games.7 The Romans also used spectaculum to refer to the seating area or the venues themselves. The dedicatory inscription on the Pompeian amphitheater calls it a spectacula.8 I use the word ―spectacle‖ in this thesis to describe a broad range of entertainment.
In the sense of ―something worth viewing,‖ not all spectacles were state-sponsored public entertainment. The funerals of prominent Romans incorporated long-standing traditions and pageantry to create impressive spectacles.9
Richard Beacham begins his investigation of spectacle entertainment with the statement:
―We do not know what we are talking about.‖ This statement reflects the difficulty of summarizing the abundance of material on spectacles and their changeable nature throughout the
Roman world.10 Free entertainment available to Romans was both varied and frequent. Chariot races and stage shows accompanied religious festivals; these ludi (games) were numerous and supposed to honor the gods. Beacham estimates between fifty and seventy-five religious holidays per year during the first century BCE and Paul Veyne reckons that Romans enjoyed three months of holidays under Tiberius and four months by the end of the second century CE.11
During the republic, magistrates saw to financing and organizing theatrical performances, chariot races, and beast hunts (venationes) both as part of their official duties and in order to further their
7 Aug. Mon. Anc. 4.43; Suet. Aug 44.1 8 CIL 10.852; the inscription reflects the duty of magistrates to organize public entertainment. Vit. 5.6.2 calls the seating area of the theater, which are divided into wedges (cunei), the spectacula: Cunei spectaculorum in theatro ita dividantur, uti anguli trigonorum, qui currunt circum curvaturam circinationis, dirigant ascensus scalasque inter cuneos ad primam praecinctionem; supra autem alternis itineribus superiores cunei medii dirigantur. 9 Richard Beacham, Spectacle Entertainments of Early Imperial Rome (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 17: ―rites attending the deaths of prominent citizens could be transformed into spectacular public shows not only through the gladiatorial entertainments that were associated with them, but also by the capacity of the funeral itself for suggestive splendor.‖ 10 Beacham, 1 11 Beacham, 2; Paul Veyne, Bread and Circuses: Historical Sociology and Political Pluralism, transl. Brian Pearce (New York: Penguin, 1990), 399.
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political careers.12 Romans did not originally associate gladiatorial spectacles with public holidays. Instead, these were celebrated as privately-funded munera to deceased family members. Theatrical entertainment and gladiatorial combat could be combined to honor the deceased; these events, when accompanied by food handouts or public banquets, also served to enhance the prestige of surviving family members. Livy records, for example, that the four-day celebration for Titus Flamininus‘ father in 174 BCE featured seventy-four gladiators as well as plays.13 The Etruscan tradition of gladiatorial munera was exploited more and more, and Julius
Caesar pushed them into the limelight of public entertainment in 65 BCE by featuring three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators to honor his father‘s death (which had occurred in 85).14
Although the original purpose of ludi and munera was commemoration of gods and family, their politicization during the republican period even led to debates in the Senate about imposing restrictions, and magistrates bolstered the appeal of plays and chariot races by adding gladiators to the menu of religious ludi.15 Beacham records triumphs, public funerals, and circus parades
(which preceded chariot races) on his list of public entertainment.16
In Petronius‘ day, spectacles included plays, races, hunts, and combats not only as part of public religious festivals but also at Nero‘s whim. All the aforementioned were public entertainments; the emperors had taken exclusive right to host gladiatorial munera, which they did not restrict to funereal contexts. The emperor could, for instance, give munera in celebration of his own good health.17 We know that Nero also hosted and acted in private shows for his court.18 Nero often monitored the audiences of his spectacles. Suetonius reports that Vespasian
12 Beacham, 3-4. 13 Livy 42.28.2; Beacham 14-15. 14 See Beacham, 14-15 for a chronology of prominent Romans who sponsored munera. 15 Beacham, 15-16. 16 Beacham, 17-24. 17 Veyne, 398. 18 Tac. Ann. 14.15; Dio 61.19ff; Suet. Nero 11.1; see also Bartsch, 4.
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was excluded from Nero‘s circle because he left performances or fall asleep in his seat during the emperor‘s tour of Greece.19 Bartsch notes that the ―theatricality‖ of Nero‘s behavior is not limited to the theater. Nero performs a role on stage, and the audience performs a role through their response, which is monitored.20 Perhaps influenced by the ―theatricality‖ of Neronian
Rome, Petronius describes a dinner party which constantly features food that is costumed and scenes in which the servers act. The diners at Trimalchio‘s Cena are watching scenes which resemble public spectacles but are performed in a private context. They are not limited to the typical theatrical fare, but the actions do seem scripted, so the diners become Trimalchio‘s audience.
From our first glimpse of Trimalchio, he is performing. Although we cannot always say exactly what or why Trimalchio is performing, Petronius consistently develops Trimalchio‘s character as a player through a variety of scenes. Chapter 2 investigates the relationship between
Trimalchio‘s triclinium and reality through a commentary on events from the Cena which resemble spectacles. Costas Panayotakis‘ study catalogs and interprets the references to theatrical entertainment in the Satyrica. He concludes that Petronius highlights Trimalchio‘s eccentricities through his odd use of theatrical elements removed from their native context.21
Although Panayotakis mentions the theme of death and the presence of funereal elements
19 Suet. Vesp. 4.4: Peregrinatione Achaica inter comites Neronis cum cantante eo aut discederet saepius aut praesens obdormisceret, gravissimam contraxit offensam, prohibitusque non contubernio modo sed etiam publica salutatione secessit in parvam ac deviam civitatem, quod latenti etiamque extrema metuenti provincia cum exercitu oblata est. 20 Shadi Bartsch, Actors in the Audience: Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), 10-11. Nero sometimes performed on stage with theatrical masks which looked like his own face; see Bartsch, 46-49; Suet. Nero 21.3: Tragoedias quoque cantavit personatus heroum deorumque, item heroidum ac dearum, personis effectis ad similitudinem oris sui et feminae, prout quamque diligeret. 21 Costas Panayotakis, Theatrum Arbitri: Theatrical Elements in the Satyrica of Petronius (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 109: ―Petronius, however, has intensified his satirical aim by making an effective match between satire and theatre through the presentation of these satirical traits in a spectacular manner.‖ See also Shadi Bartsch, 197-99. Bartsch acknowledges a ―curiously theatrical quality‖ in the Cena and likens Trimalchio‘s dinner to Neronian spectacle: ―we have a Nero-like figure confusing the boundaries of the real and the theatrical‖ (199).
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(especially at Sat. 78), he places Trimalchio‘s ‗playing dead‘ in the realm of drama and cautions the reader not to take this scene seriously.22 Charles Saylor‘s study catalogs features of spectacle in the Cena and connects them not to Roman funerals but to the literary example of funeral games in Aeneid 5.23 My study offers a fresh approach because it catalogs the events in the
Cena which resemble spectacles and links these events to literary and historical examples.
Chapter 2 does not explore the Roman funeral in depth but lays the groundwork for the comparison of the Cena to a Roman funeral in Chapter 3. This chapter moves chronologically through the scenes of the Cena and provides a taste of all that the dinner has to offer. The analysis in Chapter 3 pulls from this grab bag of scenes to recognize a pattern of death ritual and spectacles associated with honoring the dead (munera). Also present among the spectacles are enactments of manumission, a topic which will be discussed in Chapter 3 as well.
The purpose of Chapter 3 is threefold: to discuss the realism of Petronius‘ characterization of Trimalchio, to suggest a connection between displays of manumission in the
Cena and Trimalchio‘s obsession with death, and to show that Trimalchio‘s Cena resembles a
Roman funeral with elements of funeral ritual and spectacle entertainment common to funeral games. Trimalchio is the munerarius (the financier) of these spectacles, to which he has offered admission not just to friends and relatives, but to clueless strangers such as Encolpius.24 In what
22 Panayotakis, 108-9. Panayotakis says that Trimalchio simultaneously takes over the roles of stage director and the comic role of a dead person. ―One must not assume, therefore, that this scene is intended to be taken seriously in order to underline the psychological decline that luxury brings in one‘s life‖ (109). 23 Charles Saylor, ―Funeral Games: The Significance of Games in the Cena Trimalchionis,‖ Latomus 46 (1987): 593-602. Saylor views the spectacles as weak imitations of epic funeral games, the purpose of which was to separate the heroes from death. 24 That freedmen could pay for spectacles is not without historical precedent. Steven Ostrow, ―Augustales Along the Bay of Naples: A Case for their Early Growth,‖ Historia 34 (1985), 69 notes that Augustales (priests of the deified Augustus, whose ranks were filled with freedmen) funded all sorts of public munificence: ―From the towns of Misenum, Puteoli, Abella, Pompeii, Teanum Sidicinum, Cumae, Salernum, and Nuceria, we hear of the donation of ubiquitous statues, distributions of food, a set of awnings for shade in an open-air theater, gladiatorial games, highway repairs (at a cost of HS 2000), a public bath building (cost of HS 60,000), a basilica, and—in the specifically religious sphere—an altar and three temples (dedicated to Pomona, to the Genius of the town of Stabiae, and to Victoria Augusta).‖
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way has Petronius created a realistic character in Trimalchio? Many of Trimalchio‘s spectacles focus on the master/ slave relationship and suggest that Trimalchio manumits slaves during the
Cena. How can we explain the presence of manumission scenes in the Cena? Lastly, I argue in this chapter that Trimalchio plans and attends his own funeral and funeral games. The theme of death and the funereal overtones of Trimalchio‘s Cena have not escaped researchers. In particular, John Bodel has likened the Cena to a trip to the Underworld.25 Most scholars focus on Trimalchio‘s description of his funeral monument (71) or his orders to prepare his body for burial (at which point he tells the guests to pretend he is dead, 78).26 This thesis takes its name from Trimalchio‘s statement near the end of the Cena: „Fingite me mortuum. Dicite aliquid belli,‟ ―‗Pretend I‘m dead. Say something nice.‘‖ (78) I propose that we read or interpret
(legite) Trimalchio as dead throughout the Cena. This thesis will argue that the elements of spectacle work together with implicit and explicit references to funeral ritual, forming a pattern which closely resembles ancient descriptions of Roman funerals.
Chapter 4 will address an essential question for understanding the Cena in a broader context: is it funny? I argue that we can understand the Cena‘s humor by considering its relationship with Seneca‘s Apocolocyntosis. Drawing on the literary accounts of the deaths of
Petronius, Seneca, and Nero, I also consider the similarities and differences between their deaths
25 John Bodel, ―Trimalchio‘s Underworld‖ in The Search for the Ancient Novel, ed. James Tatum (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994). 26 For those who focus on Trimalchio‘s monument, see Karen Johnson, ―Death and Funerary Ritual in the Cena Trimalchionis‖ (MA thesis, Athens, GA: The University of Georgia, 1996); Jane Whitehead, ―Biography and Formula in Roman Sarcophagi‖ (Ph.D. diss., New Haven: Yale University, 1984), 231-44. For a focus on Trimalchio‘s so-called mock funeral, Catharine Edwards, Death in Ancient Rome (New Haven: Yale University Press: 2007), 167-71; Mario Erasmo, Reading Death in Ancient Rome (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2004), 19-23.
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and the funeral ritual present in Trimalchio‘s Cena. Can one successfully practice and control the moment of death?
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CHAPTER 2
COMMENTARY
The invitation to attend Trimalchio‘s dinner provides the first indication of theatrics and ritual. Agamemnon‘s slave tells Encolpius at whose house they will dine and includes an interesting detail: Horologium in triclinio et bucinatorem habet subornatum, ―he has an hourglass and a trained bugler in the dining room‖ (26). The reference to a bucinator (a trumpeter) anticipates the use of horn players throughout the Cena to indicate transitions between the spectacles and also anticipates the cornicines who summon the vigiles and provide the necessary distraction for Encolpius and his crew to escape.1 The bucinator in Trimalchio‘s dining room is subornatus (adorned, costumed) (26).2 This slave also provides the first glimpse of the macabre, as it is the slave‘s job to remind Trimalchio how long he has lived (ut subinde sciat quantum de vita perdiderit, 26).3 Horn players led the procession on the day of the funeral ceremony, and they did so loudly as an invitation for the public to watch.4
Encolpius and his companions catch sight of a bald old man playing ball at a private bath complex. This is Trimalchio, Menelaus informs them. Menelaus then pronounces: et quidem iam principium cenae videtis, ―and indeed you now see the beginning of the dinner‖ (27). This
1 Petronius does not exactly distinguish among different instruments. We read about the bucinator at 26 and cornicines at 78, but he also uses symphonia ―an agreement of sounds, concord, harmony‖ at 32 and 34. Petronius associates bucinus ―trumpeter‖ with a rooster much earlier in the Satyrica: haec dicente eo gallus gallinaceus cantavit. “non sine causa” inquit “hic bucinus signum dedit.‖ (Sat. 7). This is interesting because the crowing rooster precedes the confusion surrounding the horn players at the end of the Cena (78). 2 Martin Smith, ed. Cena Trimalchionis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975), ad loc., suggests ―all dolled up.‖ 3 Encolpius never mentions seeing this particular horologium in the dining room, but Trimalchio‘s description of his tomb features a clock for the use of passersby (Horologium in medio, ut quisquis horas inspiciet, velit nolit, nomen meum legat, 71). This minor detail supports the link between Trimalchio‘s dining room and tomb. 4 Jocelyn Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971), 47 describes a relief from the late-republican or Augustan period: ―The catafalque is preceded on the right by four pipers (tibicines) below and by a trumpeter (tubicen) and two horn-blowers (cornices) above.‖ Cf. Suet. Jul. 84 (tibicines); Sen. Apoc. 12 (tubicen, cornicines); Prop. 2.13b. 1-8 (tuba).
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statement serves as a textual marker for the beginning of the spectacle. Previously unknown,
Trimalchio appeared only seconds before to Encolpius as an old man playing a strange ball game with long-haired boys (presumably as he had done with his own master, according to his autobiography [75-76]). Now he is their host, whose death they will celebrate although he is not dead. Encolpius looks on and describes how the slaves take care of Trimalchio at the baths: Iam
Trimalchio unguento perfusus tergebatur (28). These actions echo the ritual washing of Roman funeral customs. Trimalchio‘s clothing suggests theater costume. Maybe because he was not free-born, he is not clothed in a toga but—perhaps in a nod to the Greek-style fabula palliata—in a wool pallium (palliis ex lana mollissima factis, 28).5 When the quarreling slaves spill wine on
Trimalchio, he brushes it off as a toast to his health (cum plurimum rixantes effunderent,
Trimalchio hoc suum propinasse dicebat, 28), but this event also coincides with the ritual of wetting the deceased‘s ashes with wine.6 Next Trimalchio is carried out while Encolpius is left behind to make sense of what he has just seen—a combination of spectacle and death ritual—and walk to Trimalchio‘s door.
Making their way inside Trimalchio‘s house, Encolpius and the guests pass a large fresco.
The wall painting depicts Trimalchio‘s life and also suggests the celebration of Trimalchio‘s funeral which the guests are about to experience. Trimalchio is depicted with a caduceus (et ipse
Trimalchio capillatus caduceum tenebat), the staff which the deity Mercury/ Hermes
Psychopomp uses to lead souls to the Underworld (29).7 Encolpius identifies Mercury lifting
5 Toynbee, 44; cf. Aeneid 6.219: corpusque lavant frigentis et unguunt; Aeneid 9.485-90. 6 Toynbee, 50; Cic. Leg. 2.22.55-57 says that the os resectum ―severed bone‖ is removed prior to cremation, washed with wine, and buried but does not explain the purpose of this ritual. Var. L. 5.23 explains that the family must bury a bone for purification or else they will remain polluted (funesta): ab eo qui Romanus combustus est, si in sepulcrum, eius abiecta gleba non est aut si os exceptum est mortui ad familiam purgandam, donec in purgando humo est opertum (ut pontifices dicunt, quod inhumatus sit), familia funesta manet. 7 According to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, Apollo exchanged the caduceus with Hermes for his new invention, the lyre; Seneca has Mercury, leading the dead emperor to the Underworld, serve as Claudius‘ guide to his own funeral at Apoc. 12.
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Trimalchio‘s chin and pulling him onto a raised platform: In deficiente vero iam porticu levatum mento in tribunal excelsum Mercurius rapiebat (29). This could refer to Mercury‘s role as patron of merchants, thieves, and businessmen, or Trimalchio has depicted something he will never attain—a public funeral in the style of the republic at which his body would be displayed on the rostra in the Roman forum. Mercury leads Trimalchio (either simply his body or his soul) to the rostra, and Fortuna along with the three Fates also attends to Trimalchio in the painting. Their presence confirms Trimalchio‘s desire for immortality.8 The fresco includes gregem cursorum (a crowd of runners) as well as gladiatorial games. That Trimalchio includes ludi funebres (in the form of a footrace) and munera given by someone else indicates that he values spectacles.9
Encolpius admits that he has trouble interpreting the fresco: Interrogare ergo atriensem coepi, quas in medio picturas haberent, ―I began to ask the steward what pictures they had in the middle‖ (29).
As Encolpius reaches the door to the triclinium, a slave who has been stripped for a beating (despoliatus) throws himself at Encolpius‘ feet (procubuit ad pedes) and begs for relief from punishment (ac rogare coepit, ut se poenae eriperemus, 30). The slave explains his crime: he belongs to the dispensator and allowed his clothes to be stolen from the baths.10 He mentions in his defense that the clothes were scarcely worth ten sestertii (vix fuissent decem sestertiorum) and convinces Encolpius to confront his master. The dispensator contradicts his slave‘s assertion that the clothes were a trifle: Vestimenta mea cubitoria perdidit, quae mihi natali meo cliens
8 Johnson, 57-58; Mercury and the Fates are at Claudius‘ death at Apoc. 3. Mercury convinces Clotho to cut Claudius‘ string of life and end his suffering: Tum Mercurius, qui semper ingenio eius delectatus esset, unam e tribus Parcis seducit et ait: “Quid, femina crudelissima, hominem miserum torqueri pateris? Nec unquam tam diu cruciatus cesset? Annus sexagesimus [et] quartus est, ex quo cum anima luctatur.” …[Clotho] Aperit tum capsulam et tres fusos profert: unus erat Augurini, alter Babae, tertius Claudii. 9 Although the gladiator Laenas is unknown, Trimalchio later describes how he wants all the fights of Petraites on his tomb (71). Petraites is the name of a real gladiator attested in Campania and Rome during Nero‘s time. See Henry Rowell, ―The Gladiator Petraites and the Date of the Satyricon,‖ TAPA 69 (1958), 14-24. Laenas could be a similar timely reference to a gladiator contemporary to Petronius and Nero. 10 Smith, ad loc., notes that ―a slave could in fact own another slave as part of his peculium.‖
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quidam donaverat, Tyria sine dubio, ―He lost my dinner suit which a certain client gave to me on my birthday, Tyrian [purple] of course‖ (30). Either the slave has no concept of price or the dispensator is all too happy to let the matter drop because the garment has been washed (sed iam semel lota) and faded.11 Amazingly, the dispensator responds flippantly and donates this slave to
Encolpius (Quid ergo est? dono vobis eum.). Presumably he means for their use at dinner, but this language nevertheless resembles the language of manumission, specifically the manumissio vindicta ceremony before a magistrate. At the end of this ritual, likely the oldest form of manumission, the presiding official pronounced Eum liberum addico (with dico or do sometimes replacing addico).12 The mock legal ceremony binds the slave to Encolpius. This becomes much clearer when he reappears in the triclinium and reveals that he is their wine steward for the evening: “Ad summam, statim scietis, ait, cui dederitis beneficium. Vinum dominicum ministratoris gratia est” (31). This scene is the first of several enactments of manumission.
Throughout the Cena, Petronius sustains the notion that Trimalchio‘s household slaves
(familia) double as performers. Encolpius quickly discerns that the slaves resemble a troupe of pantomimes (Pantomimi chorum, non patris familiae triclinium crederes, 31) who attend to the guests‘ manicures and pedicures while singing all the way (obiter cantabant, 31).13 The use of
11 Mart. 4.61.4-5 says that a cloak was purchased for ten thousand; Smith reminds that ―the process of fulling clothes was perhaps more destructive than simple washing;‖ Mart. 10. 2 mocks a friend who regifts togas which he has had laundered three or four times. Another issue surrounding this garment is its legality: if Nero‘s ban on Tyrian purple was still in effect (Suet. Nero 32), then these clothes were contraband! 12 Susan Treggiari, Roman Freedman During the Late Republic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 24 n.2, cites Var. L. 6.30, as the source of this substitution: Contrarii horum vocantur dies nefasti, per quos dies nefas fari praetorem „do,‟ „dico,‟ „addico,‟ itaque non potest agi: necesse est aliquo eorum uti verbo, cum lege quid peragitur. 13 Why pantomimes and not mimes? For the confusion of these terms, see William Slater, ―Mime Problems: Cicero Ad fam. 7.1 and Martial 9.38,‖ Phoenix 56 (2002): 315-29; William Slater, ―Pantomime Riots,‖ Classical Antiquity 13 (1994): 120-44. Encolpius seems to have mixed up terms in this case as mimes were supposed to be organized into troupes whereas pantomimes performed solo with musical accompaniment. In fact, Eumolpus later compares their efforts to trick the legacy hunters on Croton to a mime performance: “Quid ergo,” inquit Eumolpus “cessamus mimum componere?” (117).
12
familia to refer to a group of actors exists already in early Roman comedy, as in the prologue to
Plautus‘ Menaechmi 74:
haec urbs Epidamnus est, dum haec agitur fabula: quando alia agetur, aliud fiet oppidum; sicut familiae quoque solent mutarier: modo ~ni caditat leno, modo adulescens, modo senex, pauper, mendicus, rex, parasitus, hariolus...
This city is Epidamnus while this play is acted: when another is acted, it will become another town just as the troupe is used to being changed: now he will turn up again as the pimp, now a young man, now an old man, a poor man, a beggar, a king, a toady, a soothsayer...14
A group of gladiators can also be called a familia.15 Thus, the title of familia reflects the triple role the slaves play: servers, actors, and gladiators. The familia are also useful at the master‘s funeral, if he frees them in his will, as hired mourners.16
Once settled into their places, the guests witness Trimalchio‘s entry. Not only does he draw attention to himself with a late entrance, but the details of his entrance also echo those of a triumph. As in the triumphal procession, musicians precede him as he is carried in (Trimalchio ad symphonias allatum est, 32). Because of his freedman‘s status Trimalchio has slightly altered some of the paraphernalia to resemble a triumph without taking honors forbidden to his class; in fact, the triumph had become the exclusive right of the emperors by Petronius‘ time.17 The triumphing general dressed himself in purple and gold; Trimalchio wears a purple Greek-style cloak instead (pallio...coccineo, 32) and carries a napkin decorated with the characteristic
Senatorial wide purple stripe around the edges (laticlaviam... mappam, 32).18 Encolpius laughs at the entrance, but why? The grandness has been minimized in Trimalchio‘ rendition; it is the
14 Later (Cena, 53), Trimalchio brags that he once bought a troupe of comoedi, which he ordered to perform Atellan farces in Latin instead of New Comedy in Greek. 15 Cic. Sul. 19.54; Suet. Aug. 42. 16 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4.24.6 records this practice. 17 Naomi Norman, ―Imperial Triumph and Apotheosis: The Arch of Titus in Rome,‖ in Koine: Mediterranean Studies in Honor of R. Ross Holloway, ed. D. B. Counts and A. S. Tuck (Oxford: 2009), 46. 18 The mappa has another important role in spectacles: the editor drops his handkerchief to signal the start of a race in the Circus (Suet. Nero 22).
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take-home version for those who want to pretend to be an emperor while forcing their friends to watch. Trimalchio‘s ring is gilt (subauratum) and iron embellishments resembling stars surround the ring, but it seems to Encolpius (ut videtur mihi) entirely gold (totum aureum) like a Senator‘s ring. In place of a scepter, Trimalchio carries in his right hand a silver toothpick (pinna argentea, 33).19
Encolpius refers to features of the dinner as scenes. For instance, the first course, which slaves carry out with musical accompaniment (Accessere continuo duo servi et symphonia strepente scrutari paleam coeperunt), features Trimalchio‘s explanation of the course (Convertit ad hanc scaenam Trimalchio), an explanation which turns out to be false (33). The music and theatricality of the slaves as they interact with the diners strengthen Encolpius‘ understanding that the slaves are role-playing. They clear plates on cue (cum subito signum symphonia datur et gustatoria pariter a choro cantante rapiuntur), and a slave performs a set change right in front of the audience (Insecutus est supellecticarius argentumque inter reliqua purgamenta scopis coepit everrere, 33)20 before Trimalchio turns their attention to his recitation of a funereal epitaph
(34).21 A recitation would not be uncommon at a classy cena, but this verse certainly serves as a funereal ‗marker‘ of Trimalchio‘s purpose for the dinner.22 The diners‘ praise (laudationem) accompanies the advent of the next tray of food and indicates that they understand the poem as a form of entertainment (35). Likewise, the guests exclaim Sophos!, lift their hands to the sky, and
19 Beacham, 20. 20 There is a textual variation here: supellecticarius is the emendation of Dousa where the ω manuscripts have lecticarius. According to the OLD, a supellectilarius/superlecticarius is ―a servant in charge of household furniture‖ but a lecticarius is ―a litter-bearer‖ or ―chair-man.‖ Both words seem to refer to slaves who do manual labor; cf. Col. 1.pr.12: e turba pedisequorum lecticariorumque defectissimum annis et viribus in agrum relegat. The lone literary source for the meaning of supellectarius cited in the OLD is Ulp. Dig. 33.7.12.31: supellecticarios et ceteros hoc genus servos. 21 Smith, ad loc., ―This combination of two hexameters and one pentameter occurs occasionally in Greek and Latin epitaphs.‖ 22 T.P. Wiseman, Catullus and His World: A Reappraisal (Cambridge: 1985), 125: ―Far from being an innovation of the Augustan age, as is usually thought, the performance of poetry was familiar enough in the late Republic for Varro, documenting the cultural life of the time, to write three volumes de lectionibus... and Juvenal complained of the constant recitations of poets as one of the hazards of Roman city life.‖
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give over-the-top words of approval (―Sophos!” universi clamamus, et sublatis manibus ad camaram iuramus Hipparchum Aratumque comparandos illi homines non fuisse) after
Trimalchio describes the characteristics of each astrological sign (40).23 The dinner guests seem to recognize the appropriate times to applaud and praise their host. Tacitus, Dio, and Suetonius all describe similar behavior during Nero‘s reign. Suetonius says that Nero had equites and over
5,000 plebs trained to clap in three different styles at his performances.24 Dio calls them the
Αὐγούζηειοι (Augustiani in Latin), whose role was to encourage and model appropriate (to
Nero‘s standards) applause for the rest of the audience.25 Moreover, Tacitus describes spies in the audience who noted everyone else‘s expressions and reactions to Nero‘s performance.26 This practice had its roots in the claques who rallied applause at Roman theatrical performances.27
As the diners begin the meal Encolpius likens two events to entertainment typical of the amphitheater. Two Ethiopian slaves enter the dining room. Encolpius describes them as quales solent esse qui harenam in amphitheatro spargunt, ―just like those who are accustomed to sprinkle sand in the amphitheater‖ (34). Fresh sand was sprinkled in the amphitheater in order to soak up and cover the blood spilled during gladiatorial combat.28 These slaves circulated in the dining room to clean the guests‘ hands after the first course. Encolpius reports that they did so with wine and nobody demanded water (aquam enim nemo porrexit). As part of the next course,
23 Martial provides evidence for the use of the Greek work sophos by Roman audiences in this context, that is, as a statement of approval (―Bravo!‖) in several epigrams: 3, 46, 8; 1, 50, 37; 1, 67, 4; 1, 77, 10. 24 Suet. Nero 20.3: Neque eo segnius adulescentulos equestris ordinis et quinque amplius milia e plebe robustissimae iuventutis undique elegit, qui divisi in factiones plausuum genera condiscerent -- bombos et imbrices et testas vocabant—operamque navarent cantanti sibi, insignes pinguissima coma et excellentissimo cultu, puris ac sine anulo laevis, quorum duces quadringena milia sestertia merebant. 25 Cass. Dio 61.20.5: ―And you could have heard them saying something like ‗Noble Caesar, Apollo, Augustus, the Pythians‘s Only Match! No one outdoes you, Caesar, we swear it by yourself.‘‖ 26 Tac. Ann. 16.5.2: quippe gravior inerat metus, si spectaculo defuissent, multis palam et pluribus occultis, ut nomina ac vultus, alacritatem tristitiamque coeuntium scrutarentur. 27 Bartsch, 7-9. 28 Roland Auguet, Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games (London: Routledge, 1972), 55 notes that sand and water were mixed to clean up after a gladiator‘s death; Martial also describe this practice: Hoc, rogo, non melius quam rubro pulpita nimbo, spargere et effuso permaduisse croco? (5.25.7-8); Hac fuerat nuper nebula tibi pegma perunctum, pallida quam rubri diluit unda croci (8.33.3-4).
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the tray is fitted with representations of mythological characters: a rabbit with wings, which
Encolpius recognizes as Pegasus and four Marsyas figures pouring sauce from wine-skins.
Around the tray, Encolpius observes fish swimming in a channel (pisces qui natabant in euripo,
36). His use of euripus links the mythological scenes on the platter to the Circus Maximus in
Rome, where Julius Caesar added a euripus. Ten feet wide and ten feet deep, this channel surrounded the arena and prevented the spectacle from entering the seating area.29 In this course, a slave named Carpus (Carver) slices the meat tableside for the guests‘ entertainment: Processit statim scissor et ad symphoniam gesticulatus ita laceravit obsonium, ut putares essedarium hydraule cantante pugnare, ―Immediately the carver stepped forward and, dancing to music, he cut the food in such a way that you would think that an essedarius was fighting with a water organ playing‖ (36). Encolpius connects Trimalchio‘s slave to the amphitheater by mentioning the essedarius, a gladiator who fights from a chariot like a British warrior—a favorite of the emperor Caligula.30 The hydraulus, water organ, suggests entertainment during Nero‘s reign.31
But Encolpius fails to understand this scene and consults a fellow diner. This diner, qui saepius eiusmodi ludos spectaverat, ―who quite frequently had seen shows of this type,‖ helps Encolpius link Trimalchio‘s Cena to the amphitheater (36).
When slaves bring in a tapestry decorated with images associated with hunting, Encolpius admits that he did not know what would happen (necdum sciebamus quo mitteremus suspiciones nostras, ―but we did not yet know where we should send our suspicions,‖ 40). Previously,
29 Suet. Jul., 39; John Humphrey, Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 175-76. Nero had the euripus filled in to create permanent seating for equites. The term euripus sometimes described the barrier in the center of the track which connected the turning posts (also commonly called the spina). 30 Suet. Cal. 35: Cum quodam die muneris essedario Porio post prosperam pugnam servum suum manumittenti studiosius plausum esset, ita proripuit se spectaculis. 31 Suet. Nero 54: Sub exitu quidem vitae palam voverat, si sibi incolumis status permansisset, proditurum se partae victoriae ludis etiam hydraulam et choraulam et utricularium ac novissimo die histrionem saltaturumque Vergili Turnum.
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Encolpius did not associate the carving slave with the gladiatorial shows, so perhaps he was also unfamiliar with the venatio (wild beast hunt) as a kind of spectacle. Encolpius describes the marvelous scene: et ecce! Canes Laconici etiam circa mensam discurrere coeperunt, ―and look!
Spartan hounds began to run around the table‖ (40). The hounds‘ quarry, a boar of the largest size (primae magnitudidis aper), enters the dining room in reverse order (that is, after the hunters) as does another slave who will carve the boar—Encolpius notes very specifically that a different Carpus appears here: ceterum ad scindendum aprum non ille Carpus accessit (40).
This slave enters in costume, equipped with hunting gear. He wears a great beard (barbatus ingens), high boots (fasciis cruralibus alligatus), and a multi-colored cloak (alicula...polymita); he wields a hunting spear (venatorio cultro) which he uses to pierce the boar (40). The birds which fly out of the boar (ex cuius plaga turdi evolaverunt) do not surprise Encolpius; the porcus
Troianus (Trojan pig) was well-known enough that Macrobius mentions the very same practice: the pig ―was stuffed with other animals that were closed inside in the same manner that the
Trojan horse was filled with warriors.‖32 An element of this scene does puzzle Encolpius. He questions the same diner who had explained the water organ, whom Encolpius calls interpretum meum (my interpreter), why the pig wears a pilleus (freedman‘s cap) (41). The response reveals that this spectacle deals with manumission. Yesterday‘s dinner guests, much like spectators at the amphitheater, released the pig from execution (hic aper, cum heri summa cena eum vindicasset, a convivis dimissus est), so he fought in this evening‘s spectacle as a free pig (itaque hodie tamquam libertus in convivium revertitur) but with deadly results (41).
Although gladiatorial combat interests the dinner guests, freedman who were willing participants make for much more interesting shows. Consider the discussion led by the dinner guest Echion during the period when Trimalchio leaves the table (45). Echion steers the
32 Macr. 3.13.
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conversation toward a three-day festival to be given by Titus (Et ecce habituri sumus munus excellente in triduo die festa, 45). A notable and desirable feature of these munera is that many freedmen will participate instead of family-owned gladiators (familia non lanistica, sed plurimi liberti, 45). The gladiators, likely freedman of the lanista who continue to fight for their former master, are more well-liked than slaves, and Echion expresses his approval of the games‘ sponsor with the statement: Et Titus noster magnum animum habet, et est caldicerebrius, ―Our
Titus has a great heart and he is also hot-headed‖ (45). Also, the participants will fight to the death (sine fuga) and the amphitheater will resemble a slaughterhouse (carnarium in medio, ut amphitheater videat). Echion continues his description with a tale of rough justice in the amphitheater. Among curiosities such as a female charioteer (mulierem essedariam), these games will also showcase the execution of a slave, whom Glyco caught in delicto flagrante with the slave‘s mistress, presumably Glyco‘s wife (45). But Echion, calling Glyco sestertarius homo
(a worthless man), disapproves either of the method of execution (dispensatorem ad bestias dedit, ―he gave the slave to the beasts‖) or the judgment against a slave who was following his mistress‘ orders (Quid servus peccavit qui coactus est facere, ―What has a slave, who was compelled to do something, done wrong?‖). Echion contrasts the spectacle which Titus will provide to the games of Norbanus, whose gladiators are feeble (decrepitos), bow-legged
(loripes), one-third dead who have sliced tendons (tertiarius mortuus pro mortuo, qui haberet nervia praecisa), and others which you would think are Gallic chickens (putares eos Gallos gallinaceos) (45). Overall, an undesirable lot.
The guests again show their eagerness to applaud Trimalchio after he returns to the triclinium and engages Agamemnon in a controversia, the rhetorical exercise of arguing the legality of an improbable or impossible situation. Tacitus casts this method of rhetorical training in a negative light because it separated the learners from reality—especially the reality of
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preparing young advocates to deliver orations in the forum.33 After asking Agamemnon for the theme of his declamation (Dic ergo, si me amas, peristasim declamationis tuae), Trimalchio tries to usurp the role of schoolmaster (48). He exploits the technical sense of controversia and impresses his guests with his powers of logic: Hoc, inquit, si factum est, controversia non est; si factum non est, nihil est, ―If this happened, it is not a controversia; if it did not happen, it is worthless‖ (48). To take advantage of this loophole to prove his case represents the separation of schoolroom from courtroom which both Tacitus and Encolpius reject.34 Although trained in declamation, Encolpius shows minimal interest in Agamemnon‘s demonstration (Agamemnon et nescio quam controversiam euit, 48). In fact, Encolpius rails against declaimers and schools of declamation in the opening section of the Satyrica.35 Still, at its conclusion, Encolpius and the other guests display the same over-the-top applause as before: Haec aliaque cum effusissimis prosequeremur laudationibus, ―we follow these and other things with extravagant praises‖ (48).
Although not strictly part of the traditional repertoire for spectacle, public legal arguments were well-attended in the Forum Romanum and all around the Roman world. This scene also seems to refer to the notion of Roman culture‘s general decline after Augustus. By Nero‘s time, this had become a full-fledged literary trope; whether they pinned the slump on Cicero‘s death (as does
33 Tac. Dial. 35.4-5-36.1: Nempe enim duo genera materiarum apud rhetoras tractantur, suasoriae et controversiae. Ex his suasoriae quidem etsi tamquam plane leviores et minus prudentiae exigentes pueris delegantur, controversiae robustioribus adsignantur, — quales, per fidem, et quam incredibiliter compositae! sequitur autem, ut materiae abhorrenti a veritate declamatio quoque adhibeatur. Sic fit ut tyrannicidarum praemia aut vitiatarum electiones aut pestilentiae remedia aut incesta matrum aut quidquid in schola cotidie agitur, in foro vel raro vel numquam, ingentibus verbis persequantur: cum ad veros iudices ventum rem cogitant; nihil humile, nihil abiectum eloqui poterat. 34 John Bodel, ―Kangaroo Courts: Displaced Justice in the Roman Novel‖ in Spaces of Justice in the Roman World, Francesco de Angelis, ed. (Brill: 2010), 314-15. 35 Sat. 1: Nunc et rerum tumore et sententiarum vanissimo strepitu hoc tantum proficiunt ut, cum in forum venerint, putent se in alium orbem terrarum delatos. Et ideo ego adulescentulos existimo in scholis stultissimos fieri, quia nihil ex his, quae in usu habemus, aut audiunt aut vident, sed piratas cum catenis in litore stantes, sed tyrannos edicta scribentes quibus imperent filiis ut patrum suorum capita praecidant, sed responsa in pestilentiam data, ut virgines tres aut plures immolentur, sed mellitos verborum globulos, et omnia dicta factaque quasi papavere et sesamo sparsa. Ironically, Encolpius uses these supposedly useless rhetorical skills to con Agamemnon into taking them to dinner. Bodel (2010), 319: ―it is Encolpius‘ impractical modern rhetorical education that enables him to parlay his literary learning into substantive gain for himself and his friends.‖
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Tacitus)36 or more generally blamed the declamation schools‘ indoor training (as does Seneca the
Elder),37 Romans linked literary deterioration with their loss of rhetorical ability. To Cicero, the speaker‘s platform corresponded to a stage, but theatrical stages were unfit for rhetoric.38
Perhaps this is the connection Petronius makes: a dinner party is neither the appropriate place for rhetorical arguments nor funeral games.
When another pig enters the dining room on a platter, Encolpius reports that all the guests cast suspicion on the length of time this pig spent in the kitchen and its size (49). When
Trimalchio interrogates the cook, he admits to the charge: cum constitisset ad mensam cocus tristis et diceret se oblitum esse exinterare, ―when the sad cook arrived at the table he said that he had forgotten to gut [the pig]‖ (49). Trimalchio orders the slave to be stripped (Despolia!) and two torturers (tortores) appear to whip the forgetful cook. Encolpius introduces two opposing viewpoints about the turn of events. He wants to see the cook punished, but the other guests beg on the cook‘s behalf (49). This episode mimics the choice the crowd in the amphitheater could make to free a gladiator. Trimalchio releases the slave from punishment and orders the cook to gut the pig in front of everyone. At this point, Encolpius and the other guests realize the event was scripted, because sausages and prepared meats spill from inside the pig and the guests burst into applause for the evening‘s second porcus Troianus (49-50). Apart from serving as props in
36 Tac. Dial. 35.1: At nunc adulescentuli nostri deducuntur in scholas istorum, qui rhetores vocantur, quos paulo ante Ciceronis tempora extitisse nec placuisse maioribus nostris ex eo manifestum est, quod a Crasso et Domitio censoribus claudere, ut ait Cicero, “ludum impudentiae” iussi sunt. 37 Sen. Contr. 9 pr. 3-4: in foro, ut nihil aliud, ipsum illos forum turbat. hoc, quod vulgo narratur, an verum sit, tu melius potes scire: Latronem Porcium, declamatoriae virtutis unicum exemplum, cum pro reo in Hispania Rustico Porcio, propinquo suo, diceret, usque eo esse confusum, ut a soloecismo inciperet, nec ante potuisse confirmari
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Trimalchio‘s scenes, the pigs also have a ritual function. According to Cicero, a final resting place cannot be considered a grave without the sacrifice of a pig on the site.39
Trimalchio makes plain his preferences during a lull in the entertainment. A slave is engaged in reading an account of events on Trimalchio‘s estates in the same manner as the urbis acta in Rome (qui tanquam Urbis acta recitavit), but the entrance of several petauristarii (tight- rope walkers) and a baro insulsissimus (a very awkward fool, possibly a clown) distracts
Trimalchio, who tells the guests that tight-rope walkers are under-appreciated and should be watched with the utmost pleasure (53).40 Trimalchio reacts to his guests‘ disinterest in the scene;
Encolpius notes that only Trimalchio was engaged in this entertainment. Trimalchio‘s statement reveals his true taste: ceterum duo esse in rebus humanis, quae libentissime spectaret, petauristarios et cornicines; reliqua, animalia, acroamata, tricas meras esse, ―in human affairs there are only two things which should be watched with utmost pleasure: acrobats and horn players; beast fights and the rest are just pure nonsense‖ (53). However, it is unclear whether he means it (in which case he has filled his dinner entertainment with ―nonsense‖) or is attempting to regain the collective attention of his freedmen-filled audience. Trimalchio goes on to say that he bought comic actors but ordered them to act Atellan farces and the flute player to play in Latin
(Nam et comoedos, inquit, emeram, sed malui illos Atellanam facere, et choraulen meum iussi
Latine cantare), a curious statement, but taken in context with the herald‘s announcement of events in his empire, Trimalchio seems to suggest his wealth and commonality with his audience at the same time (53).
Another example of Trimalchio‘s clemency occurs in a complicated event involving a troupe of tumblers (petauristarii) who drop a member on Trimalchio‘s arm (53-54). Encolpius
39 Cic. Leg. 2.22.57: nec tamen eorum ante sepulchrum est quam iusta facta et porcus caesus est. See also Toynbee, 50. 40 Suet. Jul. 20.1 records the institution of the urbis acta by Julius Caesar in 59 BCE.
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reports that both slaves and guests react with shouting. His language suggests that Encolpius is suspicious. For instance, Encolpius notices that Trimalchio‘s groaning and body posture brachium tanquam laesum (as if his arm were hurt) draw the attention of doctors (concurrere medici), who materialize to tend Trimalchio (54).41 Fortunata soon musses her hair as if in mourning (crinibus passis) and approaches the body with a goblet as if paying her respects: et inter primos Fortunata... cum scypho, miseramque se atque infelicem proclamavit, ―and
Fortunata was among those nearest with a goblet, and she proclaimed that she was both miserable and unlucky‖ (54). Trimalchio seems to play dead in this scene, but Encolpius sees through the acting and focuses on the slave, who is not dead from the fall after all. His behavior reminds Encolpius of the cocus who ‗forgot‘ to gut the pig (49). In particular, the slave‘s begging for reprieve from the guests bothers Encolpius: nam puer quidem qui ceciderat, circumibat iam dudum pedes nostros et missionem rogabat. Pessime mihi erat, ―for that boy who had fallen, already was standing around our feet and begging mercy. I was taking it badly‖ (54).
Encolpius, who advocated the cook‘s punishment, now looks around the dining room because he fears some automatic device (automatum) will come out of the wall. Suetonius, in order to highlight his cruelty, says that Claudius used automatic devices for executions, and if they did not work, he forced whoever was on hand to commit the execution by fighting to the death on trumped up charges.42 However, Trimalchio does not punish the boy so harshly (although he is beaten). As Encolpius suspected (nec longe aberravit suspicio mea), Trimalchio frees the acrobat. Trimalchio‘s reasoning reflects his pride in his promotion from slave to freedman‘s status: ne quis posset dicere tantum virum esse a servo vulneratum, ―lest any man be able to say
41 Doctors were not necessarily on the scene to heal. Consider, for example, Mart. 1.47 which compares doctors to undertakers. 42 Suet. Claud. 34: Bestiaris meridianisque adeo delectabatur, ut et prima luce ad spectaculum descenderet et meridie dimisso ad prandium populo persederet praeterque destinatos etiam levi subitaque de causa quosdam committeret, de fabrorum quoque ac ministrorum atque id genus numero, si automatum vel pegma vel quid tale aliud parum cessisset.
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that I was wounded so much by a slave‖ (49). The pig wearing a pilleus, the cook whom
Trimalchio spares from punishment, and the slave in this scene point to a pattern in the Cena where Trimalchio grants reprieve to objects or persons within his domain. Trimalchio is a freedman who is obsessed with freedom.
Suetonius says that Caligula showed great favor to performers, athletes, and even gladiators. He was so devoted to the faction of charioteers known as the Greens that he dined with them at their stable (cenaret in stabulo assidue et maneret) and once gave the charioteer
Eutychus two million sesterces as an apophoreta (present which one receives at the table) at a commissatio.43 Trimalchio gives out his own apophoreta, each one a pun on a dish of food or an ingredient. Encolpius reacts pleasantly to these and says there were so many he forgot a lot of them (56). These party favors are also similar to the sportula (small basket of gifts) from gladiatorial shows or distributed in the city. In fact, Claudius even used the term sportula to refer to his games, because they resembled handouts in their frequency.44 Encolpius experiences another touch which is reminiscent of Caligula. After Trimalchio had ordered the dessert tables to be cleared, slaves sprinkled yellow and red-colored sawdust on the floor (scobemque croco et minio tinctam) as well as mica dust (ex lapide speculari pulverem tritum). The last detail lies outside Encolpius‘ experience (quod nunquam ante viderem), but Suetonius records red and green-colored dust in the Circus Maximus during Caligula‘s reign. He also forced Senators to race―a task far below their status.45
Trimalchio also takes part in the entertainment. He helps the Homeristae, who enter the dining room dressed in Homeric costume, by translating their Greek into Latin. Trimalchio
43 Suet. Cal. 55: Prasinae factioni ita addictus et deditus, ut cenaret in stabulo assidue et maneret, agitatori Eutycho comisatione quadam in apophoretis vicies sestertium contulit. 44 Suet. Claud. 21. See also, Stat. Silv. 1.6.9-50; Dio Cassius 66.25; Sen., Ep. 74.7. 45 Suet. Cal. 18: Edidit et circenses plurimos a mane ad vesperam interiecta modo Africanarum venatione modo Troiae decursione, et quosdam praecipuos, minio et chrysocolla constrato circo nec ullis nisi ex senatorio ordine aurigantibus. For the practice of spreading sand at spectacles, see supra, n. 28.
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commands the guests‘ attention with his twisted recount of the Trojan War: Agamemnon and
Ganymedes are Helen‘s brothers; Agamemnon kidnaps Helen and sacrifices a deer to Artemis at
Aulis; at the end of the war, Achilles and Iphigeneia, Agamemnon‘s sister in this version, are wed; Achilles‘ wedding drives Ajax mad (59). The applause of the Homeristae (clamorem
Homeristae sustulerunt), who are no longer entertaining because Trimalchio has stolen the show, marks the end of a scene, and slaves bring out a themed menu item—a boiled calf (vitulus... elixus) which a slave called Ajax proceeds to slice as if raging (secutus est Aiax strictoque gladio, tanquam insaniret, concidit, 59). Although he failed to make a connection between the entertainment and food on two previous occasions (40-41; 49) and asked for interpretative help from another diner to connect the slave named Carpus to gladiatorial shows (36), Encolpius immediately recognizes the link between the Homeric recitation and the new tableside spectacle, which resembles a ―fatal charade‖ in its staging of a mythological scene.46 At this point in the dinner, as the noise began to rattle the ceiling, Encolpius‘ comments reveal how attuned he has become to his host‘s taste: consternatus ego exsurrexi, et timui ne per tectum petauristarius aliquis descenderet, ―alarmed, I stirred myself, and I feared that some sort of tight-rope walker would come down through the roof‖ (60). Keenly remembering Trimalchio‘s favorite type of entertainment (53), Encolpius is mimicking his fellow diners (Nec minus reliqui convivae mirantes erexere vultus expectantes quid novi de caelo nuntiaretur.), who may have seen this trick before: the ceiling opens and drops garlands and perfume onto the dining room (60). Nero
46 Kathleen Coleman, ―Fatal Charades: Roman Executions Staged as Mythological Enactments.‖ JRS 80 (1990), 44- 73, coins the term ―fatal charades‖ to describe executions which doubled as spectacle entertainment and were staged to resemble scenes from myths. Coleman, 68: ―Lucian relates how the undiscerning part of the audience was carried away by admiration for the actor when a mime artist playing Ajax lost control of his emotions and rampaged hysterically upon the stage; others, however, realized that the actor had so identified with his own ultra-realistic performance that the ‗act‘ had become reality (Salt. 83).‖
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outfitted a dining room in his Domus Aurea with a retractable ceiling to drop flowers on guests and a sprinkler system to spray them with perfume.47
After the freedmen and Trimalchio take turns with supernatural storytelling (61-63),
Trimalchio turns his attention to Plocamus and accuses him of liking more elevated forms of entertainment: Tibi dico, inquit, Plocame, nihil narras? nihil nos delectaris? Et solebas suavius esse, canturire belle deverbia, adicere melicam, ―Hey, Plocamus, do you say nothing? Do you delight in us at all? You are accustomed to sweeter things, to recite excerpts from plays beautifully, to recite lyric poetry‖ (64). Plocamus takes this statement as an invitation to recite poetry in Greek. Encolpius, saying he hardly recognizes the language as Greek, reacts strongly against this performance: Appositaque ad os manu, nescio quid taetrum exsibilavit quod postea
Graecum esse affirmabat (64). Trimalchio even provides musical accompaniment (Nec non
Trimalchio ipse cum tubicines esset imitatus) in the form of imitating a bugler—a talent which he shows again (69). Horn players (under various names) have served as markers for transitions throughout the dinner. It is the horn players (cornicines) whom Trimalchio has summoned to play at his mock funeral which alarm and inadvertently summon the vigiles; in particular, it is one of the undertaker‘s slaves who plays so loudly that it shakes the whole neighborhood (78).
Trimalchio continues the theme of manumission by inviting the slaves to dine with the guests. He foreshadows his household‘s eventual freedom (aquam liberam gustabunt) and claims he frees all of them in his will (omnes illos in testamento meo manu mitto, 71).
Manumission via will, manumissio testamento, presented many benefits to Romans: newly-freed slaves were certain to attend the deceased‘s funeral; freedmen were usually still bound to complete tasks to fulfill their duty as clientes; and this method also relieved the heir from dealing
47 Suet. Nero 31: In ceteris partibus cuncta auro lita, distincta gemmis unionumque conchis erant; cenationes laqueatae tabulis eburneis versatilibus, ut flores, fistulatis, ut unguenta desuper spargerentur…
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with the loyalty or disloyalty of the household. The order to free the slaves had to be properly formatted or the manumission could be disputed in court. Of course, this would be a hassle for the heir rather than the deceased.48 Trimalchio‘s slaves could have anticipated such an irregularity because Trimalchio orders his will to be read aloud in its entirety (exemplar testamenti iussit afferri et totum a primo ad ultimum ingemescente familia recitavit, 71). This process resembles the vocal transmission of his estate‘s acta urbis (53). After Trimalchio describes his vision for his funeral monument, a reversal occurs. The guests have praised almost every speech Trimalchio made after his entrance to music (32). Here the guests, slaves,
Fortunata, Habinnas, and Trimalchio himself weep in the same over-the-top manner with which they previously cheered their host: Haec ut dixit Trimalchio, flere coepit ubertim. Flebat et
Fortunata, flebat et Habinnas, tota denique familia, tanquam in funus rogata, lamentatione triclinium implevit, ―As Trimalchio said these things, he began to weep copiously. Fortunata was crying, and Habinnas was crying, too, at last the entire household, as if really invited to the funeral, filled the triclinium with wailing‖ (72). This reversal marks the transition from spectacles which commemorate death to more overt displays of death ritual. The presence of death ritual in the Cena will be explored in Chapter 3.
48 Treggiari, 27-29. Treggiari sees no evidence that slaves were ever freed by poorly-worded wills, a judicial process called favor libertatis, during the republican period.
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CHAPTER 3
ANALYSIS
Realism in the Cena
―See!‖ he cried triumphantly. ―It‘s a bona fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella‘s a regular Belasco. It‘s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop too—didn‘t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?‖ He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on its shelf muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Encolpius, our faithful reporter of the Cena, describes everything he sees even when he fails to understand. For example, when describing the apophoreta, each one a pun on food,
Encolpius admits he cannot remember all of them (sexcenta huiusmodi fuerunt, quae iam exciderunt memoriae meae, ―there were a zillion of this type which now slip out of my memory,‖
56). Petronius uses Encolpius‘ narrative voice to establish Trimalchio‘s identity as a wealthy freedman. Trimalchio appears silly or buffoonish only when the reader recognizes chinks in his armor—statements, actions, or details which are out of step with reality. In my analysis, I follow
Bodel‘s advice:
…if we are to replicate the responses Petronius meant to elicit in his original readers, we must learn to distinguish the social realities he faithfully mirrors from the cultural conventions he purposefully distorts, much as we have learned to distinguish generic models that broadly inform his narrative from the specific topoi he subverts through travesty and burlesque.1
Petronius incorporates accurate descriptions of many elements of Roman daily life into the Cena; in short, events in the Cena resemble events which could have happened. In this chapter, I answer the call of John D‘Arms ―to return once again to the text of the Satyricon, recognizing
1 Bodel, ―Trimalchio‘s Underworld,‖ 238.
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that it sometimes faithfully reflects, sometimes comically distorts, contemporary Roman institutions and social realities.‖2
Consider the setting of the Cena. Scholars have fixed the site of Trimalchio‘s house in the Campanian region in the port city of Puteoli, on the basis of clues in the text as well as epigraphic evidence.3 Petronius describes a Graeca urbs (Greek city) on the coast (81) and
Trimalchio‘s epitaph mentions his membership in the Augustales, who were active in the Bay of
Naples region.4 That Petronius‘ chosen setting is identifiable as a real place makes his characters‘ actions and speeches more believable. In a lengthy monologue, Trimalchio tells the story of his rise from slavery to the wealthy freedman standing before the guests (75-76). We learn that he inherited great wealth from his former master (patrimonium laticlavium, ―a senatorial fortune,‖ 76); lost and regained this fortune in the shipping trade (76); and diversified his holdings through investments in land and farms (76; see also 39). This description is consistent with the evidence for real freedman.5 Ostrow notes that the Augustales in Puteoli were shipbuilders, traders and wholesalers, bankers, manufacturers of purple dye, owners of marble quarries, silversmiths, and goldsmiths. 6 Although Trimalchio‘s autobiography portrays the opportunities available to real freedmen in business, it also contains exaggerated and inconsistent details. The purchase of property at Pompeii has escaped Trimalchio‘s notice
(quando mihi Pompeiani horti empti sunt, 53); he tells the guests that the wine comes from an estate he owns but has not had a chance to visit (in suburbano nascitur eo, quod ego adhuc non
2 John D‘Arms, Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome (Harvard University Press: 1981), 99. 3 For arguments for Puteoli as the setting, see D‘Arms, 105-106; J.P. Sullivan, The Satyricon of Petronius: A Literary Study (Indiana University Press: 1968), 46-47. A monument at Puteoli bearing the name Petronius suggests personal familiarity with the region and may explain his knowledge of Augustales in the region (CIL X, 1873, 1888, 8178). 4 Ostrow, 90-91: they ―reveal through their tombstones that they were engaged in just those activities which were among the most lucrative.‖ 5 D‘Arms, 117-18; Ostrow, 90-91. 6 Ostrow, 91 n. 122 cites the example of the Vettii brothers from Pompeii (whose financial accounts are known through the tablets of Caecilius Iucundus) as freedmen who financed luxurious houses through shipping.
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novi, 48); he remarks that the property borders both Tarracina and Tarentum, impossible for a single tract of land (dicitur confine esse Tarraciniensibus et Tarentinis, 48); and Trimalchio also boasts that he looks forward to buying Sicily so he can walk to Africa through his own borders
(Nunc coniungere agellis Siciliam volo, ut cum Africam libuerit ire, per meos fines navigem, 48).
D‘Arms dismisses these statements as mere boasting because of the contexts in which
Trimalchio makes them. His bragging serves to connect his successes as a businessman to the extravagances of the Cena.7 Using the setting of a Campanian port town and realistic details of the business practices of freedmen in the region, Petronius enhances his characterization of
Trimalchio.
Finally, consider the example of Trimalchio‘s tombstone. Based on his own description, his epitaph ought to read like this:
HOC MONUMENTUM HEREDEM NON SEQUATUR C. POMPEIVS TRIMALCHIO MAECENATIANVS HIC REQVIESCIT HVIC SEVIRATVS ABSENTI DECRETVS EST CVM POSSET IN OMNIBVS DECVRIIS ROMAE ESSE TAMEN NOLVIT PIVS FORTIS FIDELIS EX PARVO CREVIT SESTERTIVM RELIQVIT TRECENTIES NEC VNQVAM PHILOSOPHVM AVDIVIT VALE ET TV
Let this monument not pass to the heir. Gaius Pompeius Trimalchio Maecenatianus rests here. To whom while absent the rank of sevir was decreed. Although he was able to be among all the decuriae at Rome, nevertheless, he did not wish it. Faithful, brave, loyal, he grew from little and left behind 30 million sesterces. And he did not ever listen to a philosopher. Goodbye, and you, goodbye. (71)
A few features may appear strange, but, in fact, are not without precedent. D‘Arms points out that these features (especially his cognomen, Maecenatianus; election in absentia, and potential
7 D‘Arms, 117-18: ―His boasting about his lands and his literature are intended to impress his guests...‖
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membership in decuriae), although not appropriate to a freedman, are attested for equites.8 The detail of election in absentia is attested, in fact, nowhere for freedmen, but Cicero states that it happened to the eques Marcus Caelius: absentem… et ea non petenti detulerunt quae multis petentibus denegarunt, ―they conferred on him, absent and not seeking it, things which they denied to many who were seeking them.‖9 Trimalchio‘s second cognomen, Maecenatianus, invokes one of the most famous equites, Gaius Maecenas; and the suffix –anus suggests adoption. Should we accept Maecenas as the cognomen of his wealthy former master, or has
Trimalchio adopted himself into the equestrian class? A freeborn Roman man‘s inscription typically included filius and his father‘s name in the genitive case. Trimalchio‘s omission of this detail may be an attempt to hide his status as a freedman, but probably reveals it. Petronius creates a very specific picture, a picture of a social-climbing freedman who dreams of attaining equestrian status. The last line (VALE ET TU) engages passersby in a conversation with the epitaph; in death, Trimalchio can trick those who stop to admire his tomb or check the time
(horologium in medio, ut quisquis horas inspiciet, velit nolit, nomen meum legat, 71) into reading his name.10 The details in his epitaph may lead passersby to mistake Trimalchio for a free-born
Roman.
Fitzgerald‘s modern Trimalchio, Jay Gatsby, presumes he can regain his lost love by fabricating a nouveau riche personality. As the partygoer Owl Eyes observes, the details of
Gatsby‘s creation are realistic—a library full of real books, parties full of guests. The books, however, are not for reading, and most of the revelers have never met Gatsby. In Trimalchio,
Petronius has fashioned a character who resembles a freedman from Campania. His focus on attaining vast sums of money through an honest trade is consistent with real freedmen from the
8 D‘Arms, 109-112; see also John Bodel, ―The Cena Trimalchionis,‖ 42-43. 9 Cic. Cael. 5. 10 Erasmo, 20-21.
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area.11 Trimalchio‘s epitaph provides very specific details of his attempt to jump social classes; but he lacks the prerequisite of free birth, so he must pretend and rely on the hours he has left to live.12 David Belasco (to whom Owl Eyes equates Gatsby) gained prominence through the theater. He believed that theatergoers best understood and enjoyed realistic plays.13 Be careful with Trimalchio: he, too, plays a realistic character.
Manumission in the Cena
―Got a sock,‖ said Dobby in disbelief. ―Master threw it, and Dobby caught it, and Dobby—Dobby is free.‖ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The motif of manumission pervades those episodes which resemble spectacles.
Throughout the Cena, Trimalchio commemorates his own freedom through episodes in which he shows his clemency to his slaves. Some episodes incorporate elements of gladiatorial shows at which the gladiators, who were slaves, could be freed. I will examine several episodes in the
Cena which suggest that Petronius is recalling historical events. I will show a link between the staged manumission scenes in the Cena and the subject of death. For some Romans (including, unfortunately, Petronius himself), death represented the only escape from the imperial regime.
Trimalchio‘s fixation on death throughout the Cena connects manumission, freedom, and death, either offering a strategy to escape oppression or lightheartedly dealing with this Stoic worldview.
As Encolpius and company enter Trimalchio‘s house, they are accosted by a slave begging them for help. The slave is stripped (despoliatus) to be beaten (30). In her research on
11 D‘Arms says that ―no very special significance ought to be attached to the figure thirty million HS: Petronius used that sum on five different occasions, each time to indicate nothing more specific than great personal wealth‖ (110). 12 Bodel, ―Trimalchio‘s Underworld,‖ 253: ―Trimalchio is a free man in appearance only: he lacks the essential quality of ingenuitas, free birth.‖ Whitehead, 241-43: ―Petronius seems to satirize here a narrow, provincial rejection of Rome‘s values‖ (243). 13 Herbert Bergman, ―David Belasco‘s Dramatic Theory,‖ The University of Texas Studies in English 32 (1953), 110- 122. Belasco remarked in 1909: ―Everything must be real‖ (117).
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capital punishment in the Roman world, Kathleen Coleman regards humiliation as one of the prime functions of public torture.14 This episode does not portray very effective punishment, however, because it does not create distance between the punished and the viewers.15 Rather,
Encolpius speaks up for the slave and gets him off the hook. The slave promises to return the favor by giving him good wine at dinner (30). The dispensator uses the language of manumission to dismiss the event and the slave. Later, Encolpius reacts mercilessly to the slave who has ‗forgotten‘ to properly prepare the second porcus Troianus (49). This reversal on the part of Encolpius mirrors how quickly the crowd could turn against a gladiator in the arena. The pig, fulfilling a role, has been cornered by the cocus slave as a venator would confront his quarry. The crowd looks on and begs the munerarius, Trimalchio, to spare the ‗victim.‘ Perhaps the crowd of banquet guests wanted to (or thought they should want to) spare the pig (after all, the previous pork dish had been spared by last night‘s crowd, 41), but at the scene‘s conclusion all shout Gaio feliciter! (50) in appreciation of the porcus Troianus. Of course, the expected outcome of munera is death, so this scene succeeds in that respect with the pig‘s death;
Trimalchio also succeeds in forcing the diners to eat the ‗executed‘ victim.16 Petronius, on the other hand, defies the expectation created by the previous episode. Although the cook is stripped
(despoliatur) like the dispensator‘s slave, he is not freed but is honored with a drink (potione honoratus est) and receives a silver crown and a cup on a Corinthian bronze platter (argentea corona poculumque in lance accepit Corinthia, 50). In Trimalchio‘s ‗arena,‘ food can be freed
14 Coleman, 46: ―Alongside the notion of physical suffering as a punitive aim comes humiliation; physical suffering can be measured, however crudely, by the number of lashes or the amount of bleeding, but humiliation, constituting mental and emotional suffering, is unquantifiable.‖ 15 According to Coleman, 47: ―the public nature of Roman execution shows that one purpose of humiliating the miscreant was to alienate him from his entire social context, so that the spectators, regardless of class, were united in a feeling of moral superiority as they ridiculed the miscreant.‖ She cites the familiar example of the Roman soldiers‘ mockery of Jesus in the New Testament: Matt. 27:27-30; John 19:1-3. 16 Coleman, 73: ―The amphitheatre was where one went to witness and participate in a spectacle of death: the death of animals and men, specifically the deaths of worthless and harmful persons.‖
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(the porcus pilleatus, 41) and spectacle participants also can receive dimittio, being sent away with their freedom. Trimalchio displays his authority to inflict punishment on victims in his munera—a liberty not usually enjoyed at one‘s own funeral games.
Encolpius recognizes patterns and failed expectations in the Cena. Consider, for example, the acrobat slave who falls on Trimalchio (54). Suetonius records that a slave, playing the role of Icarus at one of Nero‘s games, fell into Nero‘s box and splattered him with blood.17
In this historical example, the slave performed his role by dying (although, presumably, he was not meant to do so in Nero‘s box). But Trimalchio‘s reaction to the acrobat reverses Nero‘s spectacle. Oddly, Trimalchio rewards the slave, who failed to perform his role properly and also injured his master (Ipse Trimalchio cum graviter ingemuisset superque brachium tanquam laesum incubuisset, 54). Encolpius, remembering what had happened when Trimalchio
‗punished‘ the cook, reacts with suspicion and checks the dining room for a trap. The narrator seems proud of his perceptiveness (Nec longe aberravit suspicio mea, ―my suspicion was not far off‖) when Trimalchio orders the slave‘s freedom. The outcome of the spectacles of Trimalchio and Nero may differ, but Trimalchio‘s rationale for freeing the slave was not altruistic: he does not want anyone to know he was injured by a slave (ne quis posset dicere tantum virum esse a servo vulneratum, ―lest anyone be able to say that such a man was wounded by a slave,‖ 54).
This remark suggests Trimalchio is acting like an emperor who practices dimittio.
In some sense, however, the Icarus slave in Nero‘s spectacle was freed. For some, death offered the only escape. Seneca connects death and freedom (although not in the context of manumission), when he focuses on a person‘s ability to control his moment of death through
17 Suet. Nero 12: Icarus primo statim conatu iuxta cubiculum eius decidit ipsumque cruore respersit.
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suicide.18 Trimalchio‘s Cena does not exhibit suicidal tendencies, but Trimalchio does want to measure and control his remaining time of life.19 Recall, for example, the horologium which informs him how much time he has left to live (26). Manumission provided Trimalchio ownership of himself. Through his successful business, he achieved ownership of a great amount of property but was unable to transcend the ‗glass ceiling‘ which separated freedmen from equites.20 Without an heir, Trimalchio must use the Cena as a public display of his understanding of death and the afterlife. Seneca ends his advice to Lucilius in Letter 26 by quoting Epicurus and elaborating on the relationship between death and freedom:
interim commodabit Epicurus, qui ait: ―Meditare mortem‖ vel si commodius sit ―transire ad deos.‖ Hic patet sensus: egregia res est mortem condiscere. Supervacuum forsitan putas id discere, quod semel utendum est. Hoc est ipsum, quare meditari debeamus; semper discendum est, quod an sciamus, experiri non possumus. ―Meditare mortem‖; qui hoc dicit, meditari libertatem iubet. Qui mori didicit, servire dedidicit; supra omnem potentiam est, certe extra omnem. Quid ad illum carcer et custodia et claustra? Liberum ostium habet. Una est catena, quae nos alligatos tenet, amor vitae, qui ut non est abiciendus, ita minuendus est, ut si quando res exiget, nihil nos detineat nec inpediat, quo minus parati simus, quod quandoque faciendum est, statim facere.
Meanwhile, Epicurus will oblige me with these words: ―Think on death,‖ or rather, if you prefer the phrase, on ―migration to heaven.‖ The meaning is clear, – that it is a wonderful thing to learn thoroughly how to die. You may deem it superfluous to learn a text that can be used only once; but that is just the reason why we ought to think on a thing. When we can never prove whether we really know a thing, we must always be learning it. ―Think on death.‖ In saying this, he bids us think on freedom. He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery; he is above any external power, or, at any rate, he is beyond it. What terrors have prisons and bonds and bars for him? His way out is clear. There is only one chain which binds us to life, and that is the love of life. The chain may not be cast off, but it may be rubbed away, so that, when necessity shall demand, nothing may retard or hinder us from being ready to do at once that which at some time we are bound to do.21
18 Edwards, 103: ―He [Seneca] cannot quite bring himself to advocate any act of resistance to tyranny other than suicide; the individual cheats the tyrant of the pleasure of his murder—the most effective punishment he can devise.‖ 19 See Tac. Ann. 15.63-64 for an account of Seneca‘s suicide. 20 Trimalchio pretends (as much as he can) to be an eques through his epitaph and his entrance to the Cena (32); see D‘Arms, 108-116. 21 Seneca Ep. 26.10. The passage of Epicurus to which Seneca refers exists only as this quotation, Usener 205.
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The spectacles allow Trimalchio‘s dinner guests to celebrate him and also give them an idea of his importance in life, but the scenes also reduce a very important moment in his life to simple spectacle. This repetition brings the dinner guests into contact with a version of manumission which Trimalchio controls. Consider the scene with the slave dressed as Dionysus (41). The slave is manumitted not through a carefully orchestrated setup but by a pun: Dionyse, esto Liber,
―Dionysus, be Liber [another cult title for Dionysus]‖ or, ―Dionysus [role this slave is performing] be free.‖ The slave, grabbing a nearby pilleus, clearly prefers the second interpretation (41). Petronius presents a freedman who takes Seneca‘s advice (Qui mori didicit, servire dedidicit) to the extreme and attempts to forget about his slavery by practicing death.
Ironically, Trimalchio‘s efforts to erase his former status as a slave in the Cena expose him as a freedman and trap him between the world of servus and eques. In order to cease his existence as a freedman and enjoy freedom, Trimalchio will have to die, an eventuality which the Cena‘s cyclical nature shows he is unwilling to undertake.
Thankfully, we lack a modern frame of reference for slavery, manumission, and the interactions between freedmen and free-born. I turn, then, to the phenomenon of Harry Potter‘s magical world in which elves are enslaved by wizards (including, it seems, institutions such as
Harry‘s school, Hogwarts) to do whatever wizards consider servants‘ work. In the wizarding world, a house elf is freed when his master grants him any article of clothing. In the case of
Dobby (the only example in seven novels of an emancipated house elf), Harry tricks Dobby‘s evil master into giving Dobby a sock. Not unlike Trimalchio, Dobby celebrates his freedom by reenacting an aspect of his manumission: Dobby collects socks and wears layers upon layers of socks and other clothing to proclaim and commemorate his freedom. His identity depends on his freedom. Harry Potter creates the epitaph for Dobby‘s tombstone: Here lies Dobby, a free elf.
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Trimalchio‘s dinner may relive his moment of freedom like Dobby, but, he will die a freedman
not a free man.
Reading the Cena as a Roman funeral
Pacuvius, qui Syriam usu suam fecit, cum vino et illis funebribus epulis sibi parentaverat, sic in cubiculum ferebatur a cena, ut inter plausus exoletorum hoc ad symphoniam caneretur: βεβίωηαι, βεβίωηαι!
Pacuvius, who made Syria his home by custom, used to celebrate a parentalia for himself with wine and those sorts of funeral feasts, and then he was carried from dinner into his bedroom as was being sung, amid the applause of his favorite slaves: ―He has lived! He has lived!‖ Seneca, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, 12.8
This passage from Seneca provides a real-life analogy to Trimalchio‘s actions at the end of the Cena (77-78) although its relationship to the Cena is unclear. The parentalia is a ritual which honors dead relatives at the grave.22 Seneca goes on to condemn Pacuvius‘ actions, stating that he was doing it ex mala conscientia (from a bad conscience). Whether Seneca includes
Pacuvius to condemn his banquet‘s immorality or because he disapproves of Pacuvius personally
(and Pacuvius just happens to practice his parentalia every day) is also unclear.23 Seneca‘s letter does make clear that at least one Roman did plan and carry out death rituals prior to his death, but that behavior was uncommon and (at least to Seneca‘s Stoic sensibilities) inconsistent with societal norms. Trimalchio‘s dinner imitates important aspects of Roman death ritual closely enough for readers to recognize them.
The Greek historian Polybius, writing in the second century BCE, gives the most famous description of a Roman funeral. Even more useful is Bodel‘s pairing of Polybius‘ account with explanations of two funeral reliefs—one from Amiternum and the other, from the Tomb of the
22 Cicero refers to the sepulchrum as the location where the parentalia is observed: adduci tamen non possem, ut quemquam mortuum coniungerem cum deorum immortalium religione, ut, cuius sepulcrum usquam extet, ubi parentetur, ei publice supplicetur (Phil. 1.13). 23 See Erasmo, 14-15; Edwards, 174-75 for fuller discussions of Pacuvius.
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Haterii from Rome.24 This is the proper sequence for a funus translaticus, a funeral for an eques or senator.25 Before the deceased passed, relatives gathered at his death bed to pay final respects.
The body was washed, dressed in a toga, and placed on a bed (lectus funus) for a wake
(collocatio), which could last as long as seven days.26 The funeral procession (pompa) ―of illustrious men‖ (ηῶν ἐπιθανῶν ἀνδρῶν) took a route from the deceased‘s home to the rostra in the Forum, where the body was displayed.27 Along the path of the pompa, horn players preceded four to eight pallbearers carrying the corpse on the bier. The surviving family and recently-freed slaves, all dressed in mourning clothes, trailed behind. Actors were hired to wear the funeral masks (imagines) of other dead ancestors, as well, so the entire clan could participate in the funeral parade.28 On the rostra, the participants arranged themselves in chronological order: the ancestors (actors wearing the imagines), the deceased (lying comfortably on his bier), and the heir (who will give the first funeral oration).29 After the funeral orations, Roman custom dictated that the body be buried or cremated (and even when cremation was employed, a bone had to be buried, the os resectum). According to the Twelve Tables, all remains must be buried outside the pomerium. Although exceptions were made, health concerns (and, likely, the desire for those
24 John Bodel, ―Death on Display: Looking at Roman Funerals‖ in The Art of Ancient Spectacle, Bettina Bergmann and Christine Kondoleon, eds. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 263-70. 25 Toynbee, 43 distinguishes the different types of funerals: funus militare (for soldiers), funus publicum (those who rendered special service to Rome), funus imperatorium (for the imperial family). 26 Toynbee, 43-45; Bodel, ―Death on Display,‖ 267-68. See especially Bodel‘s description of lying in state from the Tomb of the Haterii. 27 Polybius, 53. 28 Polybius, 53; Toynbee, 46-47. Bodel, ―Death on Display,‖ 271-72 notes that the use of imagines declined after Tiberius‘ reign, perhaps as a result of imperial dissuasion. The custom was banned outright for all but the emperors in the early third century CE. See Geoffrey Sumi, ―Impersonating the Dead: Mimes at Roman Funerals,‖ AJP 123 (2002): 559-85 for the actors who portrayed the deceased in the funeral parade. 29 Bodel, ―Death on Display,‖ 264: ―... the tableau presented to observers assembled in the Forum basin offered a static visual ordering of the past, present, and—ideally, when a son delivered the oration—future of the clan, to complement the aural narrative of their exploits recounted in the eulogy and the mobile review of family history just realized in the cortege. When a young boy was called upon to deliver the oration, sometimes as his first public speech, the chronological ordering of the ritual was most clearly evident.‖
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who were put in the ground to stay there) ensured adherence to this rule.30 The family‘s obligations did not end when they buried their relative. Special festivals and milestones in the deceased‘s life (such as his birthday) brought the family to the tomb or grave site. They made offerings of food, wine, and wreaths from time to time. Material possessions were placed at, on, or in tombs: lamps, cooking and eating utensils, toys, games, combs, jewelry, and even armor honored the dead and made the afterlife more comfortable.31 In particular, the yearly parentalia or dies parentales set a specific time for honoring the ancestors with small gifts placed at the grave site.32
Trimalchio attempts to mimic the components of a Roman funeral, but Erasmo maintains that ―the chronological confusion of ritual elements and the sensory assault on his guests magnify the vulgarity and absurdity of Trimalchio‘s behavior.‖33 How closely does Trimalchio follow the prescribed order of rituals? To begin with, we must account for the fact that when Encolpius first sees Trimalchio he is not dead; he is playing ball at the baths. At the baths, the slaves pour perfume on him, dry him, and spill wine on him as if in imitation of the ritual washing (28). So far, Trimalchio acts according to custom. Next, he should be carried out on a lectus funus and have his body displayed at the collocatio. Indeed, slaves place him on a litter (lecticae impositus est), and he is carried away (auferretur) in a mock pompa; but this parade is more like a pompa triumphalis than a funeral parade (28). He is clothed in a scarlet cloak (coccina gausapa), with armored charioteers and a hand-cart going ahead (praecursoribus pharetris cursoribus et chiromaxium), and a musician plays in his ear for the entire journey (ad caput eius symphoniacus cum minimis tibiis accessit et tanquam in aurem aliquid secreto diceret, toto itinere cantavit, 28).
30 Cicero notes the burials of Publius Valerius Poplicola, Publius Postumius Tubertus, and Gaius Fabricius within the city (Leg. 2.23.58); Toynbee, 48-50. 31 Toynbee, 51-53. 32 Ov. Fast. 2.533-70; Toynbee, 61-64. 33 Erasmo, 23.
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These features combine elements of the funeral parade and a triumphal procession. Staging a mini-triumph is consistent with Trimalchio‘s obsession with the afterlife and perpetual memory.
In fact, it suggests a desire to achieve deification; the secretum which a slave whispered in the ear of the triumphing general, who proceeded along the Via Sacra to the Temple of Jupiter
Optimus Maximus, was ―Remember: you are only a man.‖34 Analyzing the funeral of Augustus,
Naomi Norman sees a strong connection between funeral and triumph because both ritualize apotheosis. For Augustus‘ funeral, the prolonged spectacle allowed viewers to process the suggestion that Augustus was, in fact, a god.35 In each ritual, the element of audience participation is essential: someone must see the dead emperor‘s spirit ascend. Seneca pokes fun at this feature by exposing the witness to Claudius‘ apotheosis as a fraud: he says to ask the same person who saw Drusilla (Caligula‘s sister/ wife) ascend to heaven.36
Encolpius describes what he sees after entering Trimalchio‘s atrium, a wall painting depicting Trimalchio (29). Pliny the Elder describes how the atrium served as the holding area for the family‘s imagines, wax masks which depict the faces of the family‘s ancestors.37
Trimalchio has no family masks because he is a freedman. Instead, he relies on images of himself.38 Mercury in the painting has two, very different roles. Of course, interpreting this fresco is tricky because Encolpius, our narrator, says he has difficulty (he is however, aided by tituli in the painting). Nothing prevents the viewer from understanding that the fresco represents
34 Beacham, 20. 35 Norman, 49-50. 36 Sen. Apoc. 1: quaerito ab eo qui Drusillam euntem in caelum vidit: idem Claudium vidisse se dicet iter facientem, ―ask the one who saw Drusilla going into the sky: the same one says that he saw Claudius making the journey.‖ 37 Pliny HN 35.6: aliter apud maiores in atriis haec erant, quae spectarentur; non signa externorum artificum nec aera aut marmora: expressi cera vultus singulis disponebantur armariis, ut essent imagines, quae comitarentur gentilicia funera, semperque defuncto aliquo totus aderat familiae eius qui umquam fuerat populus. stemmata vero lineis discurrebant ad imagines pictas. 38 Sumi, 564-66 discusses the mimus who realistically portrayed Vespasian at his funeral parade. He also notes that, as an equestrian, Vespasian had no imagines to display at his funeral (574, n. 49). Although Trimalchio precedes Vespasian, the emperor‘s substitution of his own image (the mime wore a mask: Suet. Vesp. 19.2) for the traditional imagines does suggest equites (whom Trimalchio strives to emulate) resorted to this practice.
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past and future: Mercury has aided Trimalchio as a businessman and in death, Mercury will lead
Trimalchio to the rostra in the Forum. If we understand this painting (which also depicts ludi funebres and munera) as a marker, then we can move forward knowing that Trimalchio is playing dead for the entire Cena.
The food Trimalchio serves at the Cena resembles offerings to the dead. Consider the first course: dormice sprinkled with honey and poppy seeds and sausages above a gridiron with pomegranate seeds underneath (30). This is both an example of food which seems to be something else (the seeds are meant to suggest red-hot coals) and a munus to the dead. 39 To represent other munera, Trimalchio employs his familia of slaves. They are his actors, gladiators, and hired mourners. They sing and act like mimes (31); bus tables as if changing scenes (34); applaud on cue; provide entr‘acte distractions as tight-rope walkers, a clown, and acrobats (53),40 recite Homer (59), and read reports from his estate and the will in which
Trimalchio promises to free them (53; 71). They create an amphitheater-like ambiance by sprinkling sand (34) and colored sawdust (56); they perform a venatio (40-41) and they ‗fight‘ and ‗kill‘ food in staged scenes (36; 49-50; 59-60). In the end, Trimalchio‘s slaves really are his family as they anticipate their freedom (listening to the reading of his will) and weep (71-72).41
Earlier in the Cena, Trimalchio described his life and anticipated his funeral through artwork which Encolpius describes for the reader. Although Trimalchio cannot dramatize his cremation
(because this act would be impossible to repeat), several events point to his entombment: the
39 Toynbee, 62 lists bread, wine and grapes, cakes, sausages, fruits, incense, and flowers as appropriate offerings at a tomb. 40 Ter. Hec. Prol 4: ita populu‟ studio stupidus in funambulo animum occuparat. 41 Tamen me salvo cito aquam liberam gustabunt. Ad summam, omnes illos in testamento meo manu mitto. ―However, with me safe and sound, they will taste free water soon. In the end, I am freeing all of them in my will.‖ (71). Notice the odd ordering of future tense (gustabunt) followed by present (mitto). This suggests Trimalchio‘s confused mortality: is he alive, dead, or dying? Is he freeing the slaves now or later? Also, notice the confusion in me salvo (which Smith renders ―as long as I‘m spared‖). Trimalchio simultaneously emphasizes benefits the slaves will receive upon his death and reassures them that he, too, will continue to exist safely.
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spilled wine (28), the display of his grave clothes (78), and the arrival of the vigiles, who respond to an unlit fire (78). Trimalchio presents an ekphrasis of his tomb prior to its construction, but his description represents—for the guests and the reader—its completion and his burial, the final phase of a proper Roman funeral. He calls for specific dimensions, inscriptions, and sculptural features which may seem elaborate, but Trimalchio‘s instructions are much less specific than an inscription from Andematunnum Lingonum in Germany.42 In fact, a point by point analysis of
Trimalchio‘s description reveals that he orders a pastiche of the most common features from
Roman funeral monuments rather than an innovative tomb.43
Up to this point, Trimalchio has followed the traditional order for a funeral. After he effectively buries himself by describing his tomb, Trimalchio wants to return to the baths. Here, the hints of death are less subtle. Trimalchio‘s statement Sic calet tanquam furnus, ―This is as hot as a furnace,‖ suggests his cremation (72). Encolpius remarks to Ascyltos: Quid cogitas? ego enim si videro balneum, subito expirabo, ―What do you think? For if I see a bath, I will die immediately‖ (72). The companions decide to attempt an escape while Trimalchio leads the other guests to the baths. Two interpretations are possible: perhaps the record skips, and
Petronius has the guests repeat their previous experience (beginning with Trimalchio‘s ritual washing) to emphasize the order of the funeral; or perhaps the second bath scene represents the soul‘s passage over the river Styx into the Underworld—a difficult journey because Encolpius,
Ascyltos, and Giton are not dead.44 Nevertheless, they follow Giton to the door where they entered. Encolpius recalls details from their trip to the doorway which echo Vergil‘s description of the entry of Aeneas to the Underworld. The chained dog (canis catenarius) resembles
42 CIL 13.5708. 43 See Johnson, 40-53 for a detailed analysis of Trimalchio‘s tomb. Johnson summarizes (53): ―His exertions over his monument are ironic, since its sculptural and epigraphical themes are common in funerary art.‖ 44 Bodel, ―Trimalchio‘s Underworld,‖ 240-41 links this episode to Menippean satire, a generic predecessor of the Satyrica: ―Menippus himself had written a Nekyia (Diogenes Laertius 6.101), and it seems that the underworld may have held a peculiar fascination for him.‖
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Cerberus. Petronius reverses Claudius‘ arrival at the door of the Underworld where the recently- deceased emperor and Mercury meet Cerberus.45 Encolpius, helping Ascyltos, who has fallen into the fishpond (Ascyltus in piscinam ceciderat), is dragged into the whirlpool (in eundem gurgitem tractus sum, 72). This echoes Vergil‘s description of the waters of Acheron: turbidus hic caeno vastaque voragine gurges aestuat, ―this whirlpool, disordered with filth and vast abyss, stews.‖46 It is ironic that Encolpius had hoped to avoid getting wet but has to pull Ascyltos out of the pool. The atriensis guards the passage across the Stygian fishpond and out the entry doors.
For, as he tells Encolpius: Nemo unquam convivarum per eandem ianuam emissus est; alia intrant, alia exeunt, ―None of the guests ever is let go through the same door; they enter one way, they exit another way‖ (72). The travelers must find another exit just as the unburied souls on the banks of the Styx must find another entrance. Compare the Sibyl‘s description of these souls
(centum errant annos volitantque haec litora circum) to the doorkeeper‘s advice (Erras, inquit, si putas te exire hac posse, qua venisti, 72).47 Petronius‘ use of the verb errare (to wander) links the two passages. Although strictly speaking not part of a funeral, this attempt to escape nonetheless contains representations of death. So, barred from exit/ entry, Encolpius and his companions rejoin Trimalchio‘s dinner. Indeed, Encolpius says that they were trapped in a new type of labyrinth (novi generis labyrintho inclusi, 73). The reference to the labyrinth serves also
45 Sen. Apoc. 13: Itaque quamvis podagricus esset, momento temporis pervenit ad ianuam Ditis, ubi iacebat Cerberus vel ut ait Horatius “belua centiceps.” Pusillum perturbatur—subalbam canem in deliciis habere adsueverat—ut illum vidit canem nigrum, villosum, sane non quem velis tibi in tenebris occurrere, et magna voce “Claudius” inquit “veniet.” 46 Aeneid 6. 296-97. Vergil also uses gurges to describe a method of purification for the damned in Tarturus: aliae panduntur inanes suspensae ad ventos, aliis sub gurgite vasto infectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igni, ―some, hung up, are let go to the empty breezes, for others the dyed crime is washed away under a vast whirlpool or is burned with fire‖ (6. 740-42). The word‘s application to the fishpond must represent more than comic hyperbole as the waters of the pond (like the Acheron‘s) are simultaneously stagnant and rushing like a whirlpool. 47 Aeneid 6. 329. Trimalchio says that he travelled to the Sibyl‘s cave at Cumae (48): ‗Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Σίβυλλα τί θέλεις; respondebat illa: ἀποθανεῖν θέλω.‟
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as an interpretive marker for the organization of the Cena around a funeral.48 When Encolpius returns to a different triclinium, an appropriately-named slave, Daedalus, is pouring drinks for the guests (Daedalus potionem ferventissimam haurit, 74). After their descent to the
Underworld, can Trimalchio refocus the diners‘ attention on his funeral ceremony? He begins to reclaim control by ordering another division of slaves to come on duty (74).
Trimalchio begins to recite his autobiographical eulogy, emphasizing his work ethic and steady progression towards attaining his current wealth (74-77). Encolpius‘ ekphrasis of
Trimalchio‘s atrium fresco describes the wall painting without any interpretation. The artwork visually constructs Trimalchio‘s autobiography by depicting him on the auction blocks; as a long- haired slave; learning how to keep accounts; and, finally, ascending a raised platform with
Mercury, Fortuna, and the Fates (29). Trimalchio‘s painting serves as a visual eulogy as guests enter his home, and his speech clarifies the artwork‘s purpose. Petronius leaves the task of connecting the wall painting to Trimalchio‘s speech to the reader. Trimalchio explicitly states the connection between his home and a house of the dead by saying: Interim dum Mercurius vigilat, aedificavi hanc domum. Ut scitis, casula erat; nunc templum est, ―meanwhile, while Mercury keeps watch, I built this house. As you know, it was a hut; now it is a holy site‖ (77). Again,
Mercury‘s dual nature at first suggests that Trimalchio‘s house was built by trade, but the next scene, in which Trimalchio orchestrates a viewing of his dead/ live body, shows a stronger connection to Mercury Psychopomp.
―Stiche, profer vitalia, in quibus volo me efferri. Profer et unguentum et ex illa amphora gustum, ex qua iubeo lavari ossa mea.‖ Non est moratus Stichus, sed et stragulam albam et praetextam in triclinium attulit. <…>
48 Bodel, ―The Cena Trimalchionis,‖ 44 remarks that the labyrinth reference ―creates a false sense of a conclusion at a point where the banquet seems to be drawing to a close but in fact begins anew, apparently in a fresh direction.‖
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iussitque nos temptare, an bonis lanis essent confecta. Tum subridens ―Vide tu‖ inquit ―Stiche, ne ista mures tangant aut tineae; alioquin te vivum conburam. Ego gloriosus volo efferri, ut totus mihi populus bene imprecetur.‖ Statim ampullam nardi aperuit omnesque nos unxit et: ―Spero‖ inquit ―futurum ut aeque me mortuum iuvet tanquam vivum.‖
―Stichus, bring out the grave clothes in which I want to be buried. And bring out both the oil and a draught from the amphora from which I want my bones to be washed.‖ Stichus did not delay but he carried out both a white and purple-bordered covering into the triclinium. And he ordered us to check whether the wool was well made. Then, smiling, he said, ―Look, you, Stichus, don‘t let those mice or moths eat this; or else I‘ll burn you alive. I want to be carried out gloriously so that all the people will pray for me.‖ Immediately he opened an ampule of nard and anointed all of us and he said, ―I hope it is pleasing that I die as contentedly as if I were alive.‖ (77-78)
The convergence of life and death in this scene reflects the similarity of death and manumission in Trimalchio‘s mind. He hopes no physical change will overtake him. Just as he has feigned death night after night through his carefully-scripted Cenae, he is ready to be freed, and believes dying will be as easy as life. His body, in imitation of the entombed corpse, now orders the living guests to honor him at his ‗grave.‘ Encolpius describes what Erasmo calls the ―sensory assault‖ in this way:
Nam vinum quidem in vinarium iussit infundi et: ―Putate vos‖ ait ―ad parentalia mea invitatos esse.‖ Ibat res ad summam nauseam, cum Trimalchio ebrietate turpissima gravis novum acroama, cornicines, in triclinium iussit adduci, fultusque cervicalibus multis extendit se super torum extremum et: ―Fingite me‖ inquit ―mortuum esse. Dicite aliquid belli.‖ Consonuere cornicines funebri strepitu. Unus praecipue servus libitinarii illius, qui inter hos honestissimus erat, tam valde intonuit, ut totam concitaret viciniam.
For he ordered a certain wine in a wine jar to be poured on and said, ―Pretend you have been invited to my parentalia.‖ The business was approaching nauseating when Trimalchio, heavy with most disgusting drunkenness, ordered a new spectacle, horn players, to be led forth and, propped up on many pillows, he stretched himself out on the couch and said, ―Pretend I‘m dead. Say something nice.‖ The horn players played with funereal sounds. Especially one slave of the undertaker‘s, who was the most honest among those men, played so loud that he shook the whole neighborhood. (78)
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This scene has been interpreted as a rehearsal of Trimalchio‘s funeral; but Trimalchio provides the needed interpretive information and clearly states that he intends the diners to view the scene as his parentalia rather than his funus. 49 Ovid describes the parentalia as a ritual to leave offerings at the tomb of parents or family members.
Est honor et tumulis, animas placare paternas, parvaque in exstructas munera ferre pyras. parva petunt manes: pietas pro divite grata est munere; non avidos Styx habet ima deos. tegula porrectis satis est velata coronis et sparsae fruges parcaque mica salis, inque mero mollita Ceres violaeque solutae: haec habeat media testa relicta via.
It is an honor even at the tombs to please the paternal spirits and to carry small gifts onto heaped up pyres. The spirits seek little: duty is pleasing as a divine gift; lowest Styx has no greedy gods. A tile covered with stretched out garlands is enough and sprinkled grain and a small pinch of salt, and grain softened in undiluted wine and scattered violets: this tile may be left in the middle of the road.50
Trimalchio emulates this ceremony which the dead cannot corporeally attend but at which they were believed to be present in spirit. Many tombs were built with couches so that relatives could recline for this ‗meal‘ at their loved one‘s final resting place.51 Trimalchio has created a living fresco with himself as pater familias and his slaves and diners as the familia and clientes who have come to honor him on the dies Parentes.52 Like Seneca‘s Pacuvius, Trimalchio sees to this honor while he is alive. The timing of Trimalchio‘s parentalia reverses Seneca‘s assertion in another letter that the ritual should take place during the day:
49 Edwards, 169: ―In staging a rehearsal of his own funeral…‖; Niall Slater (1990) views it as the climax of Trimalchio‘s ―funeral fantasy‖ (80). Smith ad loc. refers to ―mock funerals‖ and notes the shift to the parentalia but offers no explanation. 50 Ov. Fast. 2.533-40; Toynbee, 63. 51 Toynbee, 268-70. 52 Erasmo, 22: ―Finally, Trimalchio stretches out on a couch and imitates his own future corpse and asks his guests to pretend he is dead and pay him compliments.‖
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tam infausti nocturnae aves sunt. Licet in uino unguentoque tenebras suas exigant, licet epulis et quidem in multa fericula discoctis totum perversae uigiliae tempus educant, non convivantur sed iusta sibi faciunt. Mortuis certe interdiu parentatur.
They are as unlucky as nocturnal birds. Although they pass their dark hours in wine and perfume, although they spend all the time of their mixed-up watches of the night in banquets, which are also cooked in many courses, they are not dining but they make funeral rites (iusta) for themselves. The dead are certainly honored (parentatur) during the day.53
The Cena fulfills Seneca‘s statement in several respects. It certainly is a banquet (epulis) with
many courses (in multa fericula). Because Encolpius and his companions emerge onto dark
streets we know that the Cena continues into the night (79). The statement non convivantur sed
iusta sibi faciunt connects Seneca‘s night owls to Trimalchio‘s diners.54 Trimalchio has created
his own funeral through the Cena. Moreover, Trimalchio‘s invitation to attend another banquet
(in the form of the parentalia) suggests that this process of dining, commemorating and
celebrating may continue forever, but Encolpius escapes before we find out.
The vigiles arrive because they assume his house is on fire (perhaps a reference to Ovid‘s instructions to place the parentalia offerings on a pyre [in exstructas…pyras] or perhaps in response to Trimalchio‘s desire to be cremated, 71). Thus Trimalchio‘s funeral collapses on itself, ending with the funeral dirges of the pompa. Borrowing the term from Stanley Fish,
Slater calls the Cena a ―self-consuming artifact,‖ that is, a text whose poignancy comes from what it is not doing. Slater argues that ―Trimalchio‘s final triumph as an auteur is to be consumed by the product of his own imagination.‖55 Trimalchio attempts to construct a reality in which everything progresses towards his death and funeral rites. Petronius traps Encolpius and the reader in a world where Trimalchio controls the symbolism. Petronius also double-crosses
53 Sen. Ep. 122.3. 54 For iusta as ―due observances, ceremonies; things which are due to the dead, obsequies, funeral offerings, etc.,‖ see OLD iustum, 3. 55 Niall Slater (1990), 85.
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the reader through repetition, feigned parallelism, and a mazelike structure throughout the
Cena.56 Indeed, Bodel focuses on the labyrinth (novi generis labyrinth inclusi, 73) for an interpretation of Trimalchio:
Like the Cretan monster, half man, half beast, Trimalchio is a mongrel: as a freedman he has the status of a human being, but as an ex-slave, he bears the indelible marks of his former servitude, when he possessed no more rights than an animal.57
As Encolpius and Ascyltos emerge, they find that Giton has used white chalk as an Ariadne-like tactic to lead the adventurers through densest night (79).58 The strategy of reading the Cena as a funeral provides chalk marks to guide the reader out of the twists and turns of the Cena.
Petronius gives one last view of Trimalchio, the drunken freedman who wants to become an eques and has lost control of his counterfeit copy of a Roman funeral, as Encolpius dashes out the door.
56 See Bodel, ―The Cena Trimalchionis,‖ 45, fig. 2.2. 57 Bodel, ―Trimalchio‘s Underworld,‖ 253. 58 Sat. 79: Prudens enim pridie, cum luce etiam clara timeret errorem, omnes pilas columnasque notaverat creta, quae lineamenta evicerunt spississimam noctem, et notabili candore ostenderunt errantibus viam.
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CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSIONS
nimirum idem omnes fallimur, neque est quisquam quem non in aliqua re uidere Suffenum possis. suus cuique attributus est error; sed non videmus manticae quod in tergo est.
Without a doubt, we are all mistaken the same way, and there is not anyone whom you are not able to see as Suffenus in some matter. To each man his own mistake is assigned; but we do not see the knapsack which is on our own backs. Catullus 22.18-21
The Cena Trimalchionis contains references to spectacles which are as varied as the public entertainment enjoyed in Petronius‘ day. Trimalchio‘s Cena combines elements of spectacles and death ritual to create an imitation funeral. The diners become unwitting (and in
Encolpius‘ case, confused) participants in a farewell bash hosted by and featuring Trimalchio himself. Petronius crafts the details of Trimalchio‘s autobiography and epitaph to resemble freedmen from Campania, especially the Augustales. References to manumission pervade the
Cena along with allusions to Seneca‘s philosophy which emphasizes death as an escape from oppression. This thesis has proposed reading the Cena as a Roman funeral. It is possible not only to find intimations of death in the Cena, but also to follow the route of Trimalchio‘s funeral from the invitation received by Encolpius and his companions to their hasty exit. This final chapter will consider the findings of the thesis in broader context, through a discussion of the
Cena‘s humor, Domitian‘s macabre dinner party, and the deaths of Nero, Seneca, and Petronius.
Why is the Cena funny? Trimalchio‘s dinner amounts to a very exclusive joke whose punch line we cannot properly decode. Indeed, the Cena‘s unique humor has few kin. One such kinsman, however, is Seneca‘s Apocolocyntosis, which mocks Claudius‘ ascension to divine status. Seneca‘s pointed parody of apotheosis, the council of the gods, and judgment in the
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Underworld is very different from his philosophical works and advice to Nero. The Satyrica and
Apocolocyntosis share the setting of the Neronian period, and both authors were closely associated with Nero. The Apocolocyntosis presents an overt political satire of Claudius. In the
Cena, some scholars have connected Trimalchio with Nero, and in the Satyrica, Eumolpus‘ epic of the Civil War could be read as a form of political commentary.1 Petronius reverses certain aspects of Seneca‘s philosophy in the Cena; Trimalchio parrots a few points from Seneca‘s
Epistulae Morales (slaves are people [70] echoes Ep. 47.), but Trimalchio is no Stoic.2 Literary one-upsmanship may be a disappointing explanation for the entire Satyrica. In the Cena we see a character not unlike Nero (but not exactly Nero) who espouses Stoic philosophy (but laughably so) while appropriating equestrian status in order to practice funeral rituals typical of the republican period. We see a freedman simultaneously obsessed with death and, paradoxically, encouraging his guests to live well: Ergo vivamus, dum licet esse bene, ―Therefore let us live while it is allowed to be well‖ (34).3
Petronius, Seneca, and Nero would all be forced to take their own lives with none of the ceremony or ritual which Trimalchio craved and usurped through the Cena. According to
Suetonius, Nero dictated a few hasty specifics for his burial directly before his suicide: inhumation in a pit his exact height (scrobem coram fieri imperavit dimensus ad corporis sui modulum), water to wash his body and wood to perform the cremation (aquam simul ac ligna conferri curando mox cadaveri), any bit of marble for a marker (si qua invenirentur, frustra
1 Michael Paschalis, ―Seneca‘s Apocolocyntosis and Petronius‘ Satyricon,‖ in Readers and Writers in the Ancient Novel, ed. Michael Paschalis, Stelios Panayotakis, Gareth Schmeling (Eelde: Barkhuis Publishing, 2009), 110- 11, notes the problem with reading Eumolpus as Petronius‘ mouthpiece. Because the former composes his Bellum Civile while posing as a rich man sailing to Croton, it could be Petronius‘ idea of bad poetry. 2 J.P. Sullivan, ―Petronius, Seneca, and Lucan: A Neronian Literary Feud?‖ TAPA 99 (1968), 461-63 classifies Petronius‘ references to Seneca into three types and dismisses the argument that stylistic similarities exist because they wrote at the same time. 3 Not only is this a carpe diem statement, but Trimalchio is also punning here (one way that he controls the conditions inside the Cena): esse is the infinitive form for sum (I am) as well as edo (I eat). With the alternate definition, Trimalchio says: ―Therefore let us be well as long as it is allowed to eat.‖
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marmoris). Suetonius also gives us Nero‘s dying declaration: Qualis artifex pereo! ―What an artist I die!‖4 Erasmo argues that this statement does not reflect Nero‘s egomaniacal bent; rather, it could have served as an epitaph. If so, the present tense verb (pereo) intensifies the experience of passersby who read the epitaph because Nero‘s death (―I die‖) would happen each time the reader decodes the message.5 Nero‘s burial in the family tomb of the Domitii (at a modest cost of two hundred thousand sesterces) hardly befitted an emperor but was a better outcome than
Nero had dreaded in his last moment.
Seneca advises waiting for death until the proper time through the real-life example of
Pacuvius, who anticipated death because of a bad conscience (mala conscientia). Seneca encourages dealing with each day in turn: Crastinum si adiecerit deus, laeti recipiamus, ―If the god will add the next day, we should welcome it happily.‖6 Trimalchio reverses Seneca‘s advice.
Constantly foreseeing death in the mundane, he even connects constipation with death (Credite mihi, anathymiasis si in cerebrum it, et in toto corpore fluctum facit. Multos scio periisse, dum nolunt sibi verum dicere, 47). Seneca‘s Claudius breathes a final sigh of relief with his famous last words: Vae me! Puto, concacavi me, ―Poor me! I think I shat myself.‖7 Perhaps this ultimate flatulence mimics the final breath which the dying were thought to exhale.8 The Cena points to Trimalchio‘s controlling personality; if he can control the circumstances of his memorial, he can assure himself that he has conquered death.
Tacitus‘ account of Seneca‘s suicide reflects the philosopher‘s desire to control death.
Ironically, his Stoic abstinence had a negative effect on his death: quoniam senile corpus et parco
4 Suet. Nero 49. 5 Suet. Nero 49-50; see Erasmo, 154-55. 6 Sen. Ep. 12.8-9. 7 Sen. Apoc. 4. Compare Vespasian‘s last words: Vae! Puto deus fio! ―Alas I think I am becoming a god (Suet. Vesp. 24.4). 8 Anna says she will try to catch Dido‘s last breath: extremus si quis halitus errat, ore legam, ―if any final breath escapes above, I shall gather it with my mouth‖ (Aeneid 4.684-85). Cf. Prop. 2.13B 29: osculaque in gelidis pones suprema labellis.
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victu tenuatum lenta effugia sanguine praebat, ―since his body, old and small from scarce sustenance, was producing a slow trickle of blood‖). But, perhaps comically, Seneca tries to maintain control of his death scene all the way till the end. He asks his wife, also dying, to go to another room (suadet in aliud cubiculum abscere) and continues to dictate philosophy to be published posthumously by his scribes (eloquentia advocatis scriptoribus pleraque tradidit).
Like Trimalchio, Seneca props himself up while dying and asks people to listen to him, but he has trouble looking at the process of death. He fears he will lose his nerve if he sees his dying wife (ipse visendo eius tormeta ad impatientiam delaberetur). 9 Seneca‘s death shows that dying is not easy; the Cena humorously suggests that playing dead is much easier.
Cassius Dio describes a dinner given by Domitian around 89 CE. This dinner seems designed to evoke death in every aspect.
He prepared a room that was quite black on all sides, ceiling, walls, and floor, and had made ready bare couches also black, resting on the bare floor; then he invited his guests to come alone by night and with no attendants. And first he set beside each of them a slab shaped like a gravestone, with the guest‘s name on it and also a small lamp of the kind that hangs in tombs. Next beautiful naked boys, also painted black, entered like phantoms, and after circling round the guests in a sinister dance took up their positions at their feet. After this all the things that are usually offered at the sacrifices to the spirits of the dead were in the same manner set before the guests, all of them black and in dishes of a similar color. As a result of this, each and every one of the guests was filled with fear and trembling—and the constant expectation of having his throat cut the next moment, the more so as on the part of everybody but Domitian there was dead silence, as if they were already in the realms of the dead, while the emperor himself conversed only on topics relating to death and slaughter. Finally he sent them away; but first he removed their slaves, who had been standing in the vestibule, and now gave his guests into the charge of other slaves, whom they did not know, to be transported either in carriages or in litters, and by this procedure he filled them with still greater fear.10
Note the similarities to Trimalchio‘s dinner: the menu resembles offerings to the dead; Domitian creates an Underworldly ambiance; and he focuses conversation on topics of death. Dio
9 Tac. Ann. 15.63. 10 Dio 67.9.1-4; translation by Edwards, 162.
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interprets this dinner as a scare tactic through which the emperor dominated the conversation and suggested to his diners that they were under his control and as good as dead already. Was
Domitian borrowing this approach from a predecessor? The interconnection of death and dining existed in the ancient world and appears not only in historical examples (Pacuvius and Domitian) but also artistic representations (two of countless examples, a silver cup depicting skeleton diners from Boscoreale11 and the skeleton butler mosaic from Pompeii12). Domitian clearly expresses his power of life or death over the diners; Trimalchio brags to the diners about his extensive land holdings and shows his authority by manumitting slaves (and setting free at least one pork dinner). Trimalchio is not only playing dead, he is also playing emperor. Certainly emperors needed to innovate constantly to demonstrate their authority (as the effort and creativity behind
―fatal charades‖ indicate), and Domitian‘s dinner hints at a phenomenon already in existence which the emperor appropriates and adapts.
Imitation figures heavily in the Cena. For instance, Trimalchio presents several dishes of food which Encolpius does not recognize or understand because they are disguised. The most prominent examples are the two Trojan Pigs (41; 49-50). Although trained in rhetoric, Encolpius does not follow Agamemnon‘s controversia closely enough to recall it (48). Other misunderstandings point to a breakdown in reality. The realistic Cave Canem painting from
Trimalchio‘s atrium (26) is replaced with a very real barking dog when Encolpius and his companions try to leave the house (72). Trimalchio‘s excessive punning also confounds
Encolpius, who curses his own stupidity (damnavi ego stuporem meum, 41). Trimalchio mimics a Roman eques through his dress and epitaph. The Cena itself masquerades as something it is not; a dinner party is not a funeral (although the parentalia ritual imitates dining).
11 Musee du Louvre, Paris. 12 Museo Nazionale, Naples.
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Petronius exploits the breakdown in symbolic relationships through Encolpius‘ inability to interpret signs. Encolpius knows that the dining room has become a tomb, a theater, an amphitheater, and the Underworld through Trimalchio‘s cues. Is the Cena funny because
Petronius plays with our expectations for the meaning of words themselves?
For Petronius to have the reader point and laugh at Trimalchio‘s rehearsed funeral becomes ironic when we consider Tacitus‘ account of Petronius‘ forced suicide.
neque tamen praeceps vitam expulit, sed incisas venas, ut libitum, obligatas aperire rursum et adloqui amicos, non per seria aut quibus gloriam constantiae peteret. audiebatque referentis nihil de immortalitate animae et sapientium placitis, sed levia carmina et facilis versus. servorum alios largitione, quosdam verberibus adfecit. iniit epulas, somno indulsit, ut quamquam coacta mors fortuitae similis esset. ne codicillis quidem, quod plerique pereuntium, Neronem aut Tigellinum aut quem alium potentium adulatus est, sed flagitia principis sub nominibus exoletorum feminarumque et novitatem cuiusque stupri perscripsit atque obsignata misit Neroni.
But he did not fling away life headlong, but having made an incision in his veins and then, according to his mood, bound them up, he again opened them, while he conversed with his friends, not in a serious strain or on topics that might win for him the glory of courage. And he listened to them as they repeated, not thoughts on the immortality of the soul or on the theories of philosophers, but light poetry and playful verses. To some of his slaves he gave liberal presents, a flogging to others. He dined, indulged himself in sleep, that death, though forced on him, might have a natural appearance. Even in his will he did not, as did many in their last moments, flatter Nero or Tigellinus or any other of the men in power. On the contrary, he described fully the prince‘s shameful excesses, with the names of his male and female companions and their novelties in debauchery, and sent the account under seal to Nero.13
Tacitus‘ description constructs several similarities to Trimalchio. Like Trimalchio, Petronius did not listen to a philosopher (audiebatque referentis nihil de immortalitate animae et sapientium placitis); he showed kindness and cruelty to his slaves (servorum alios largitione, quosdam verberibus adfecit); most strikingly similar, he dined (iniit epulas)—quite unusual behavior for someone in the process of committing suicide; and he hoped his death, although self-inflicted,
13 Tac. Ann. 16.18.
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would seem due to natural causes (fortuitae similis esset). Petronius‘ attempt to achieve a scripted, controlled death reflects the core of Trimalchio‘s Cena. Is Trimalchio funny because he obsesses over death, or was Petronius laughing at himself a little bit when he created Trimalchio, perhaps rehearsing death a little bit for his own final exit? The Cena is funny because it constantly and relentlessly points out and laughs at something: slaves are not people; manumission can become a spectacle; emperors die and apotheosis is not real; you cannot control your death; and words have no meaning. The Cena shows you the knapsack on your own back.
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APPENDIX
SPECTACLE TABLE
Chapter Excerpt from passage Contains elements of… 26 Horologium in triclinio et bucinatorem habet trumpet players, who subornatum were present at triumphs, circus parades, and funeral processions 27 cum subito videmus senem calvum, tunica vestitum drama (scripted event) russea, inter pueros capillatos ludentem pila. Nec tam pueri nos, quamquam erat operae pretium, ad spectaculum duxerant, quam ipse pater familiae, qui soleatus pila prasina exercebatur. Nec amplius eam repetebat quae terram contigerat, sed follem plenum habebat servus sufficiebatque ludentibus. Notavimus etiam res novas: nam duo spadones in diversa parte circuli stabant, quorum alter matellam tenebat argenteam, alter numerabat pilas, non quidem eas quae inter manus lusu expellente vibrabant, sed eas quae in terram decidebant. 28 Hinc involutus coccina gausapa lecticae impositus est triumph praecedentibus phaleratis cursoribus quattuor et chiramaxio, in quo deliciae eius vehebantur, puer vetulus, lippus, domino Trimalchione deformior. Cum ergo auferretur, ad caput eius symphoniacus cum minimis tibiis accessit et tanquam in aurem aliquid secreto diceret, toto itinere cantavit. 29 Erat autem venalicium
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30-31 servus nobis despoliatus procubuit ad pedes ac rogare drama (staged event) coepit, ut se poenae eriperemus: nec magnum esse peccatum suum, propter quod periclitaretur; subducta enim sibi vestimenta dispensatoris in balneo, quae vix fuissent decem sestertiorum. Retulimus ergo dextros pedes, dispensatoremque in atrio aureos numerantem deprecati sumus ut servo remitteret poenam. 31 Tandem ergo discubuimus, pueris Alexandrinis aquam pantomime play in manus nivatam infundentibus, aliisque insequentibus ad pedes ac paronychia cum ingenti subtilitate tollentibus. Ac ne in hoc quidem tam molesto tacebant officio, sed obiter cantabant. …Pantomimi chorum, non patris familiae triclinium crederes. 32 Trimalchio ad symphoniam allatus est, positusque inter triumph cervicalia minutissima expressit imprudentibus risum. Pallio enim coccineo adrasum excluserat caput, circaque oneratas veste cervices laticlaviam immiserat mappam fimbriis hinc atque illinc pendentibus. Habebat etiam in minimo digito sinistrae manus anulum grandem subauratum, extremo vero articulo digiti sequentis minorem, ut mihi videbatur, totum aureum, sed plane ferreis veluti stellis ferruminatum. Et ne has tantum ostenderet divitias, dextrum nudavit lacertum armilla aurea cultum et eboreo circulo lamina splendente conexo. 34 cum subito signum symphonia datur et gustatoria pariter drama (staged event) a choro cantante rapiuntur 34 Subinde intraverunt duo Aethiopes capillati cum pusillis gladiatorial games or utribus, quales solent esse qui harenam in amphitheatro chariot race spargunt, vinumque dederunt in manus; aquam enim nemo porrexit. 34 Eheu nos miseros, quam totus homuncio nil est! poetry recitation (this Sic erimus cuncti, postquam nos auferet Orcus. style of poetry, two Ergo vivamus, dum licet esse bene. hexameters and a pentameter, is also characteristic of epitaph) 35 Atque ipse etiam taeterrima voce de Laserpiciario mimo mime show canticum extorsit. 36 Haec ut dixit, ad symphoniam quattuor tripudiantes public festival (tripudio, procurrerunt superioremque partem repositorii ―to dance as a religious abstulerunt. exercise‖) 36 Processit statim scissor et ad symphoniam gesticulatus gladiatorial show (water ita laceravit obsonium, ut putares essedarium hydraule organ) cantante pugnare.
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39 ―Caelus hic, in quo duodecim dii habitant, in totidem se public lectures/ recitation figuras convertit, et modo fit aries.‖ … Laudamus or declamation schools urbanitatem mathematici; … "Sophos!" universi clamamus. 40-41 cum extra triclinium clamor sublatus est ingens, et ecce beast hunt; gladiatorial canes Laconici etiam circa mensam discurrere combat (the boar was sent coeperunt. Secutum est hos repositorium, in quo positus away with his freedom erat primae magnitudinis aper, et quidem pilleatus, e [dimissus est] on the cuius dentibus sportellae dependebant duae palmulis previous night) textae, altera caryatis, altera thebaicis repleta. … Ceterum ad scindendum aprum non ille Carpus accessit, qui altilia laceraverat, sed barbatus ingens, fasciis cruralibus alligatus et alicula subornatus polymita, strictoque venatorio cultro latus apri vehementer percussit, ex cuius plaga turdi evolaverunt. … ―Hic aper, cum heri summa cena eum vindicasset, a conviviis dimissus
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49-50 Mirari nos celeritatem coepimus, et iurare ne gallum drama (staged event), quidem gallinaceum tam cito percoqui potuisse, tanto ―fatal charade‖ (Trojan quidem magis, quod longe maior nobis porcus videbatur pig), possibly a esse, quam paulo ante aper fuerat. Deinde magis manumission scene (slave magisque Trimalchio intuens eum: ―Quid? quid? inquit, receives a drink and a ―porcus hic non est exinteratus? Non mehercules est. crown) Voca, voca cocum in medio.‖ … Non fit mora, despoliatur cocus atque inter duos tortores maestus consistit. Deprecari tamen omnes coeperunt et dicere: ―Solet fieri; Rogamus, mittas; postea si fecerit, nemo nostrum pro illo rogabit.‖ … Recepta cocus tunica cultrum arripuit, porcique ventrem hinc atque illinc timida manu secuit. Nec mora, ex plagis ponderis inclinatione crescentibus tomacula cum botulis effusa sunt. … Nec non cocus potione honoratus est, e[tiam] argentea corona poculumque in lance accepit Corinthia. 52 Atque ipse [Trimalchio] erectis super frontem manibus mime show Syrum histrionem exhibebat concinente tota familia: madeia perimadeia. 53 Et plane interpellavit saltationis libidinem actuarius, qui acta urbis (―deeds of the tanquam Vrbis acta recitavit: city‖) which were read aloud in the Forum 53 Petauristarii autem tandem venerunt. Baro insulsissimus pre-show entertainment at cum scalis constitit puerumque iussit per gradus et in gladiatorial show; summa parte odaria saltare, circulos deinde ardentes Trimalchio refers to trans
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59 Intravit factio statim hastisque scuta concrepuit. Ipse poetry recitation and Trimalchio in pulvino consedit, et cum Homeristae ―fatal charade‖ (slave Graecis versibus colloquerentur, ut insolenter solent, ille acting out the madness of canora voce Latine legebat librum. … Intravit factio Ajax) statim hastisque scuta concrepuit. Ipse Trimalchio in pulvino consedit, et cum Homeristae Graecis versibus colloquerentur, ut insolenter solent, ille canora voce Latine legebat librum. … Haec ut dixit Trimalchio, clamorem Homeristae sustulerunt, interque familiam discurrentem vitulus in lance ducenaria elixus allatus est, et quidem galeatus. Secutus est Aiax strictoque gladio, tanquam insaniret, concidit, ac modo versa modo supina gesticulatus, mucrone frusta collegit mirantibusque vitulum partitus est. 64 Nec non Trimalchio ipse cum tubicines esset imitatus. trumpet players who were present at funerals, circus parades, and funeral processions 68 Interposito deinde spatio cum secundas mensas gladiatorial shows Trimalchio iussisset afferri, sustulerunt servi omnes mensas et alias attulerunt, scobemque croco et minio tinctam sparserunt et, quod nunquam ante videram, ex lapide speculari pulverem tritum 71 ille oblitus nugarum exemplar testamenti iussit afferri et funeral eulogies which totum a primo ad ultimum ingemescente familia were read aloud in the recitavit. Forum 78 "Putate vos‖ ait ―ad parentalia mea invitatos esse.‖ ... religious festival ―Fingite me‖ inquit ―mortuum esse. Dicite aliquid (parentalia) belli.‖
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