﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 61 



acterizing his age, while the latter rose high above the degeneracy of his. He next 

 adverts to the circumstance, not sufficiently considered by Barth, Wagenseil, and Vale- 

 sius, that Petronius purposely introduced specimens of the " lingua rustica," and to the 

 equally important circumstance, that in all periods there is, besides the more elevated 

 style and careful language of the historian or philosopher, a " humile dicendi genus '" 

 nearly related to the language in common use among cultivated people. Studer finds in 

 the style of Petronius, not only many points of comparison with the language of 

 Seneca, but striking illustrations of those qualities and characteristics ascribed by 

 Tacitus to the consular Petronius. I find so much truth in the last observation, that, 

 did not some weighty considerations which will appear in the course of this paper lead 

 me to place Petronius somewhat earlier than the age of Nero, I should be ready to 

 believe that the consular Petronius Avas the author of the Satyricon, — although I must 

 wholly reject the hypothesis that our Satyricon is the communication which the con- 

 sular Petronius sent to Nero. I am fully convinced that, besides being a man of genius, 

 the author of the Satyricon was a man of refinement and varied culture, and moreoA'er 

 a man of the world, endowed with that clear perception of, and penetration into, human 

 nature, which are so much more frequently found in men of the world than in retired 

 scholars, and the talent of communicating the creations of his fancy, humor, and wit in 

 language as simple and direct as it is elegant and polished. 



Studer examines first the specimens of the "lingua rustica" contained in the Satyri- 

 con, under certain heads, enumerating, 1. the Greek words, 2. the Greek words with 

 Latin terminations, 3. the Grecisms in syntax, 4. archaisms both in a grammatical and 

 lexicographical point of view, 5. compound nouns, 6. diminutives, 7. expressions of 

 peculiar strength and coarseness, 8. apothegms and proverbs, 9. comparisons, 10. hy- 

 perbolical expressions, 11. figurative expressions, 12. oaths. Then follows an exam- 

 ination of the language of Petronius himself, and of other persons of education intro- 

 duced into the work. Studer points out the naturalness and simplicity of this lan- 

 guage, the rarity of poetic or Greek turns of expression. He finds in words and 

 phrases the characteristics of the silver age ; the resemblance to the language of 

 Seneca being, however, more striking and frequent than to that of Martial, Pliny, 

 Justin, or others ; and he supports this opinion by a large number of instances. 



It seems to me that Studer lays too much stress upon words and phrases to prove 

 the supposed resemblance of Petronius and Seneca. While I do not deny the existence 

 of such a resemblance, it may, I think, be explained in quite as satisfactory a manner 

 as by assuming that the two writers were contemporaries. Petronius used in his 

 narrative, and in the conversations of the educated and refined portion of his dramatis 



VOL. VI. NEW SERIES. 9 



