﻿34 THE AGE OF PETRONICS ARBITER. 



principem ullum Romanum aut omnino quemqiiam notae paullo honestioris mortalem." 

 To prove this still further, he gives a very truthful description of Trimalchio and the 

 class to Avhich he belonged : " Ecquid intelligis rem illi tunc fuisse cum genere homi- 

 num humili, abjecto, impuro, quibus nulla a natalibus, nulla ab educatione, nulla a 

 studiis honestis commendatio est 1 qui cum di-vites se factos \ident, et literas admirari 

 sero incipiunt, inter suas opes inopes, inter studia doctrinarum indoctissimos se 

 produnt." 



Statilius gives the full title of the manuscript thus : " Petronii Arbitri Satyri frag- 

 menta ex libro decimo quinto et decimo sexto," which is repeated, in the manner usual 

 to manuscripts, at the close: "Petronii Arbitri Satyri fragmenta expliciunt* ex libro 

 XV. et XYI." The expression " ex libro decimo quinto et decimo sexto," which occurs 

 both in the title and close of the fragment, not only confirms the fact, already known 

 from ancient glossaries, that the work was divided into books, (the ancient glossary of 

 St. Benedict Floriacensis quotes the passage, " Sed rideo te totum in ilia haerere tabula, 

 quae Trojae halosin ostendit," as taken from the fifteenth f book,) but throws some light 

 on the probable extent of the work. If the banquet of Trimalchio filled a portion of 

 the fifteenth and sixteenth books, and if we bear in mind that that part of the work is 

 followed by the account of the hero's quarrel with Ascyltus, his meeting with Eu- 

 molpus, and his voyage and residence in Croton, which was evidently not the end of 

 the book, it vdll be very moderate to suppose the whole work to have consisted of 

 twenty books. It will further be seen, that this fragment is a part only of the fifteenth 

 and sixteenth books, say two thirds, so that the banquet of Trimalchio constitutes two 

 thirds of one tenth of the whole. The banquet of Trimalchio forming one third of the 

 work as we have it at present, the other two thirds would constitute four thirds of one 



* " Explicit" is the common form used at the close of manuscripts, which is probably an abbreviation for 

 " explicitus est"; a person ignorant of the origin of the expression, and mistaking it for a verb in the 

 active, formed a plural " expliciunt " to correspond to the plural " fragmenta." 



+ If the number fifteen, in the above quotation of the glossary, be correct, a difficulty arises in reconciling 

 this quotation with the statement of the Tragurian fragment, that it contains portions of the fifteenth and six- 

 teenth books. That fragment contains the " coena Trimalchionis," after which the acquaintance of the 

 hero, Encolpius, with the philosopher Eumolpus commenced. How then can the passage, " Sed video," 

 &c., which occurs in the account of the meeting between Encolpius and Eumolpus, be taken from the 

 fifteenth book .' In the present condition of the text, ten chapters intervene between the close of the " coena 

 Trimalchionis " and the above passage. This passage might, therefore, belong to the sixteenth, or, more 

 probably, seventeenth book, but cannot possibly belong to the fifteenth. Under these circumstances, and 

 there being no ground to doubt the correctness of the succession of the several portions of the story, as 

 given in our text, we must consider the number fifteen of the glossary incorrect. 



