﻿50 THE AGE OF PETROXICS ARBITER. 



the opinion that the author of the Satyricon was the Bishop Petronius of Bologna, 

 who lived in the reign of Valentinianus (364 - 375) and Theodosius (379 - 395), 

 towards the close of the fourth centurj-, a learned and eloquent divine, and no less 

 respected for the sanctity and purity of his life than his scholarship. 



It is to be regretted that the great scholar Justus Lipsius (born 1547, died 1606) 

 had no occasion or time to examine the question of the age of Petronius. A man of 

 his penetration, knowledge of the language, and antiquarian learning, could not have 

 directed his great powers and resources to the subject without thi-owiug light upon it. 

 As it is, he expresses himself very cautiously in his commentary to Tac. Ann. 16. 18: 

 '• Quern [Petronium] \'iri docti eum censent, cujus fragmenta hodie purissimae impuri- 

 tatis. De quo etiam delibero, sicut et de praenomine." 



The author of the preface to the Paris edition of 1667, which, if not from the pen 

 of Hadiianus Valcsius, but, as Burmann states, of Joan. Bourdelot, gives the sub- 

 stance of the arguments of Hadr. Valesius, and sometimes in the same words, rejects 

 the opinion that the consular Petronius of Tacitus is the author of the Satyricon. He 

 adverts to the fact that the designation " elegantiae arbiter," indicative of the relation 

 of the consular to Xero, was not a proper name, while Arbiter was really a part of the 

 author's name, as is evident from the quotations of Terentianus Maurus, Diomedes, 

 Servius Honoratus, Macrobius Theodosius, Marius Yictorinus, Hieronymus, Sidonius, 

 and others. The consular was, according to the plain statement of Tacitus, a man 

 of rank and wealth, Avhile nothing of the kind is mentioned concerning the author. 

 He points to the diiference between the communication of the consular to Nero, and 

 the Satyricon of our author, with regard to then- subject-matter, size, and extent. He 

 does not admit the arguments of Janus Dousa, by which the latter endeavors to prove 

 that the two passages, " Xon bene olet, qm bene semper olet," and " Primus in orbe 

 deos fecit timor," belonged to Petronius, and were borrowed from him by Martial and 

 Statins, and thus to establish the priority in time of Petronius. He adopts the view 

 of Henricus Valesius (Henri de Valois, bom 1603, died 1676), who places the author 

 Petronius much later than the times of Nero, and, influenced by a passage in Apolli- 

 naris Sidonius, 23, — 



" Et te Massiliensium per hortos 

 Graji cespitis (Sacri stipitis) Arbiter colonum, 

 Hellespontiaco parem Priapo," — 



considers him a Gaul by biilh, born in the neighborhood of Massilia ; but he difiers 

 from him, inasmuch as he places him a little before the times of the Emperor Con- 

 stantinus. He is induced to think so by the fact that Petronius is not mentioned by 



