﻿110 THE AGE OF PETRONITJS ARBITER. 



mum ilium civilium bellorum compositorem, traliendum banc digressionem, qua satyrice 

 ejusdem Pharsaliam perstringit noster ; avwfiel quidera ct quasi ex traverse, verum ita 

 tamen, ut cum ipsum veluti digito indicare videatur." He goes then so far as to say : 

 " Et (si mei arbitrii res fuat) unam mehercule a Petronio Eumolpicam Trojae Halosia 

 aut banc ipsam potius vere poeticain belli civQis vaticinationem multo mavelim mihi 



' Quam vel trecenta Cordubensis illius 

 Pharsalicorum versuum volumina.' " 



And after quoting the opinion of Quintilian that Lucan is to be numbered among the 

 orators rather than the poets, he continues : " Utut est, crv'yx^povoi, certe Lucanus ac 

 Petronius noster, iudidemque fortasse in coutentione studiorum communium aliquanta 

 aemulationis simultas." 



It is not necessary to point out the extravagance of Dousa in the above passage, by 

 which he conclusively proves his incompetency of judging of the relative poetical 

 merits of Lucan and Petronius. Let iis for one moment look how far his opinion is, 

 in a chronological point of view, probable. Dousa belongs to those who take it for 

 eranted that Petronius is the Petronius mentioned in Tacit. Ann. 16. 18 and foil. In 

 consideration of the change which the opinion of Lucan with regard to the character 

 of Nero underwent, — since in the first three books of the Pharsalia he speaks in terms 

 of high praise of the emperor, but in the remaining seven he does not conceal his hatred 

 and abhorrence, — it is generally acknowledged to be highly probable, if not certain, 

 that the Pharsalia was not, and in fact could not with safety be, published in the life- 

 time of Lucan. This view is not a little strengthened by the fact that the poem is 

 incomplete, probably for no otlier reason than because death overtook Lucan before 

 he could finish it. The same considerations which rendered it imsafe for Lucan to 

 publish his poem, even if it bad been completed, would deter any of his friends and 

 admirers from doing so before the death of the tyrant, Avhich occurred three years after 

 that of the poet. Under these circumstances, it is next to impossible that the Petro- 

 nius of Tacitus, who died one year after Lucan and two before Nero, could have been 

 acquainted with this work of Lucan, unless we suppose an intimacy to have existed 

 between the two men, of which we have no evidence, and which would certainly be at 

 variance with the unfriendly intention, which Dousa and those who share his opinion 

 attribute to Petronius, of pointing out the radical defect of Lucan's poem, and of show- 

 ing in his own production how that subject should be treated. 



"While many of the commentators of Petronius share the opinion of Dousa, that 

 Petronius alludes in this passage to the Pharsalia of Lucan, — without expressing it, 

 however, in so extravagant terms, — some do not. Gonsalius de Salas, for example. 



