﻿the age of petroxius arbiter. 41 



When did Petroxius live axd write ? 



Ha\-ing thus given a brief sketch of the work and its fate since the revival of letters, 

 I now approach the question which it is my mtention to examine, namely. In which 

 age clid Petronius Arbiter, the author of the work, live and write "? Not the least 

 striking feature in the history of this question is the great diversity of opinion among 

 scholars, some placmg the author as early as the times of Augustus and Tiberius, 

 others as late as Constantine, thus ranging over a period of full thi-ee hundred years. 

 This wide difference must strike every reflecting mind with surprise. It is certainly 

 very remarkable that there should be so wide a difference of opinion on a work which, 

 even in its incomplete condition, fills a volume of respectable size, and which, one 

 would suppose, must contain sufficient internal e'vidence indicating pretty plainly the 

 time in which it was written, even if there should be no external evidence. This cir- 

 cumstance seems either to indicate pecidiar, inherent difficulties in the subject itself, or 

 imply a chai'ge of inattention, ignorance, haste, inconsiderateness, on the part of some, 

 if not all, of those who have made known their opinion. Ui^on a closer examination 

 of the most important of these opinions, it wUl be found that both causes, the difficulty 

 of the subject as well as some fault of the inquu-er, have been at work in producing so 

 great a divergence of opinion. 



In order to render intelligible the account which I deem it expedient and necessary 

 to give of some of these opinions, I must anticipate one point to which the logical 

 order of the argument woidd assign a later place. I refer to the only external e\idence 

 which is, by some, adduced, and supposed to fix the time of the composition of the 

 work. The evidence, as it is supposed to be, is contained in the following passage in 

 the sixteenth book of the Annals of Tacitus, c. 17-20: " Paucos intra dies, eodem 

 agmine, Annaeus Mela, Cerialis Anicius, Rufinus Crispinus ac Gaius Petronius ceci- 



dere De Gaio Petronio pauca supra repetenda sunt : nam illi dies per somnum, 



nox officiis et oblectamentis vitae transigebatur ; utque alios industria, ita hunc ignavia 

 ad famam protulerat, habebaturque non ganeo et profligator, ut plerique sua haurien- 

 tium, sed erudito luxu ; ac dicta factaque ejus quanto solutiora et quandam sui negli- 

 gentiam praeferentia, tanto gratius in speciem simpUcitatis acciinebantur ; proconsul 

 tamen Bithyniae et mox consul vigentem se ac parem ncgotiis ostendit ; dein revolutus 

 ad vitia, sen ^itiorum imitatione inter paucos familiarium Neroni assumptus est, elegan- 

 tiae arbiter, dum nihil amoenum et molle afiluentia putat, nisi quod ei Petronius appro- 

 ba^isset; unde invidia Tigellini quasi adversum aemulum et scientia voluptatum potio- 

 rem. Ergo crudelitatem principis, cui ceterae libidines cedebant, adgreditur, amicitiam 



