﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 119 



A passage in Suetonius (Octav. 40) shows that, because many knights, reduced by the 

 civil wars in their circumstances, did not dare through fear of the law to occupy a seat 

 in the " quatuordecim," Augustus interpreted the law in such a manner as not to apply 

 to all of them : " Cum autem plerique equitum attrito bellis civilibus patrimonio 

 spectare ludos e quatuordecim non auderent metu poenae theatralis, pronunciavit non 

 teneri ea, quibus ipsis parentibusve equester census nunquam fuisset." It does not 

 appear whether this interpretation of Augustus, which Avas intended to relieve those 

 who owed their poverty to no ftiult of theirs or their parents from undeserved humilia- 

 tion, remained long in force. 



The last legislative action on the subject mentioned by historians is that of the 

 Emperor Domitian (from 81 to 96 A. D.) mentioned by Suetonius (Domit. 8): " Sus- 

 cepta morum correctioue licentiam theatralem promiscue in equite spectandi inhibuit." 

 This very passage proves the tendency to disregard the pro"sisions of the "lex Roscia"; 

 and considering the condition of the empire, the growing disorganization, both external 

 and internal, it is highly probable that this act of Domitian's was the last effort 

 on the part of the government to sustain them. The latest mention of the law, so far 

 as I know, is in Juvenal (14. 322): 



" Acribus exemplis videor te claudere ; misce 

 Ergo aliquid nostris dc moribus ; effice summam, 

 Bis septem ordinibus quam lex dignatur Othonis." 



If we adopt the view of Francke,* who places Juvenal's death, in his eighty-second 

 year, 121 A. D. (874 U. C), we know the limit beyond which no mention is made of 

 the " lex Roscia," even supposing that the fourteenth Satire was written towards the 

 close of the poet's life. 



This brief sketch of the " lex Eoscia," from its origin to the last mention of it in the 

 fourteenth Satire of Juvenal, is sufficient to con'vince the reader that the above passage 

 of our author affords little or no aid in determining the limit of time after which 

 the composition of Petronius's Avork cannot be placed. This opinion is strengthened 

 bv another consideration which should not be overlooked ; namely, that the phrase 

 "usque ab orchestra quatuordecim transilire" — although originating in the peculiar 

 custom established by the " lex Roscia," according to which the senators occupied in 

 the theatre the space immediately in front of the stage, the knights the space imme- 

 diately in the rear of the senators, and the people the rest of the theatre to the extreme 

 hindmost seats — naturally acquired a wider signification, and meant from the highest 

 to the lowest of the people, and might, in this extended signification, be and remain 



* J. Valent. Franckii Examen criticum D. Junii Juvenalis Yitae. 



