﻿78 THE AGE OF PETROMUS ARBITER. 



This difference of opiuion is, for our purpose, of small importance. It is certain, from 

 the mention of the edileship of Agrippa, which belongs to the year 33 B. C. (721 

 U. C), that this satire could not have been written earlier. Horace, therefore, spoke 

 in this satire of the older fonn of the worship of the Lares, as handed down fi-ora the 

 times of Servius Tullius, and as it was still popularly observed previously to its re- 

 organization by Augustus. 



It will be seen, then, that, so far as the mention of the Augustalcs affects the ques- 

 tion of the age of Pctronius, there is no objection to his being placed in the reign of 

 Augustus. 



9. C. 31. 3: "Aquam nivatam." The custom of using snow for the purpose of 

 cooling wine and water is of early date. In Xenophon, ^Memor. 2. 1. 30, in his account 

 of the well-known fiction of Prodicus, representing Hercides as choosing between the 



path of wtue and pleasure, this passage OCCUl'S : 'iva 8e »;Sea)? tt/z/j;?, o*i;oi;? re TroXureXet? 



TrapatTKevd^jj, koI tov Oe'povi j(^idva Trepideovaa fi/Tei?. The custom obtained in all parts 

 of the IMcditerranean, and naturally led to various contrivances for presernng snow 

 during the hot season; cf Seneca, Xat. Quaest. 4. 13. 8: "Quid Uli [Lacedaemonii] 

 fecissent, si ^idissent reponendae nivis officinas et tot jumenta portandae aquae deser- 

 vientia, cujus colorem saporemque palcis, quibus custodiunt, inquinant 1 " While the 

 use of snow as a means of cooling beverages can thus be traced to a very early time, 

 it is otherwise with regard to a further refinement in the same direction, the practice 

 of boiling water and then cooling it in snow, a practice ascribed to the inventive genius 

 of Nero. Cf Plin. Nat. Hist. 31. 3. 23. 40: " Neronis principis inventum est decoquere 

 aquam vitroque demissam in ni^is refrigerare ; ita voluptas frigoris contingit sine vitiis 

 nivis. Omnem utique decoctam utiliorem esse conveuit, item calefactam magis refrige- 

 rari, subtilissimo invento."* "We must therefore distinguish between "aquanivata" 

 and " aqua decocta," a distinction which has not been respected by some of the com- 

 mentators of Petronius, who, ui their eagerness of discovering allusions to Nero, took 

 it for granted that the "aquanivata" of Petronius was the "aqua decocta" of Nero. 

 Erhard, for instance, in his commentary on this passage, falls into this eiTor, speaking of 

 " aqua nivata" and " aqua decocta" as the same thing, and, after quoting a part of the 

 above passage from Pliny, adds : " quem [Neronem] sub persona Trimalchionis satyrice 

 irridet Petronius." ^Miether it was, or could be, the intention of Petronius to satu-ize 

 Nero, is a question which certainly canuot be decided by this passage. 



* Cf. Juvenal 5. 49 : — 



" Si stomachus domini fen-et vinoque ciboque, 

 Frigidior Geticis petitur decocta pruinis." 



