﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. - 67 



ceeded from a member of the higher classes. Formerly, Petronius Arbiter, notorious 

 under Xero as an accomplished courtier and master in refined enjoyment, was considered 

 the author ; an opinion which upon closer examination proves impossible. Xeverthe- 

 less, the language of the author himself points unmistakably to the first century of 

 the empire." 



Who, comparing this opinion with that expressed in the first edition, could believe 

 that both proceeded from one and the same person 1 Although reference is again made, 

 in a note, to unreasonable and extravagant praises of the elegance and cleverness of the 

 book, nothing is said concerning the hypothesis of the work being the production of 

 several authors ; and the statement that sure indications of a particular period in the 

 time of the emperors are wanting, is changed into another, that the language of the 

 author himself points unmistakably to the first century of the empire. 



In a note appended to the above criticism, Bernhardy observes, very justly, that the 

 literature relating to Petronius, although large in bulk, is small and poor in real merit, 

 because, for the most part, scholars of limited acquirements have occupied themselves 

 with the author. Speaking of the opposite attempts of assigning to Petronius an 

 early period, and connecting him with the Petronius of Tacitus, or of pushing him as 

 far down as possible, he says of the opinion of Xiebuhr, which places Petronius in the 

 middle of the third century, and which Bemhardy had previously pronounced the more 

 probable, that it is " the result of the intoxication of a poetic conception " (im Rausche 

 einer poetischen Anschauung). He speaks with approbation of the investigation of 

 Studer. 



Examination of the Evidence. 



Having thus given an account of the Satpicon of Petronius, of its contents, its 

 literary character, of the losses which in the course of time it has sustained, and of the 

 opinions entertained by different scholars regarding the age of Petronius, I shall now 

 proceed to a somewhat careful examination of the latter question. 



It has already been stated that there is but one instance of external evidence, or 

 what has by some been considered such; I refer to the passage in Tacit. Annal. 16. 

 17-20; and I have at the same time endeavored to prove that the Petronius spoken 

 of there is probably not the author of the Satyricon, and that the commimication sent 

 by him to Xero is certainly not our work. This only external evidence that has ever 

 been adduced being thus disposed of, we are limited to the second class of evidence 



