﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 63 



The argument advanced by Statilius in liis " Apologia," that Petronius's account of 

 the decline of art, and particularly of the total degeneracy of the art of painting, could 

 not apply to the time of Nero, is well met by Studer by a reference to Pliny, whose 

 account of the condition of art fully agrees with that of Petronius. 



Having thus met the arguments of those who, denying the Xeronian age of Petro- 

 nius, seek to assign to him a later period, Studer leaves the polemical course hitherto 

 pursued, and goes on to adduce arguments in support of his view, that Petronius be- 

 longs to the age of Nero. He points out that the complaints of Encolpius conceiTiing 

 the decline of genuine eloquence are confirmed by Quintilian, and still more by the 

 author of the '• Dialogus de Oratoribus." He next adverts to the insolent and over- 

 bearing conduct of the freedmen, which reached in the times of Tiberius, Claudius, 

 and Nero its highest point, and of which Trimalchio and his companions furnish so 

 many amusing specimens, — to the practice of leading a single life, a practice so preva- 

 lent even in the tunes of Augustus as to call for legislatiA'e interference, — and to that 

 of legacy-huntmg, so intimately connected with the preceding, — as unmistakable indi- 

 cations of the age of Nero. 



With regard to the names of historical personages, which Studer very properly con- 

 siders to be of great importance, he speaks of the names Mammaea, Mtecenatianus, 

 C. Pompeius, Scaurus, Apelles, Menecrates, and natiu-ally adopts those explanations 

 which best suit his theory that Petronius was a contemporary of Nero. Studer ex- 

 presses himself cautiously on the point whether Petronius, in what he says of poetry 

 and how such a subject as the Civil Wars should be treated, had Lucan in his mind, 

 simply stating that most interpreters follow the lead of Douza, and answer the question 

 affirmatively, leaving it to be inferred that he himself is of the -same opinion. He 

 thinks it not impossible that Hermeros, mentioned in connection with Trunalchio 

 (c. 52. 1), was the same person with the freedman of Claudius mentioned in an in- 

 scription (Gruter, 25. 12); but in the expression " Vinum Opimianum" he finds only 

 a negative argument against a later age of Petronius. 



Studer refers finally to institutions, customs, and usages, as important in settling the 

 question. In the mention of the bu'd magpie (" pica," c. 28. 9), of fi-esco-paintings 

 (c. 29), of the custom of anointing the feet of the guests, of appointing the emperor 

 as one of the heirs, of the "causidici" (c. 46), he finds confirmation of his theory, 

 although some, and probably all of them, can be traced to an earlier period. 



Studer's dissertation contaming, unquestionably, not only the latest, but the ablest and 

 most complete examination of the question to what age Petronius belongs, it appeared 

 to me just to give this full, and I trust fair, account of his opinion, and of the argu- 

 ments by which he supports it. 



