﻿THE AGE OF PETRONICS ARBITER. 125 



But not only are we deprived of tlie advantage Tvliicli a comparison of the Satyricon 

 with, another work of the same kind would afford, but great caution is required in 

 comparing different parts of the book with one another, because it contains, besides the 

 narrative of the hero, Encolpius, the sentiments, notions, and language of a variety of 

 persons, of both sexes and of all grades of culture and refinement. Some critics, mod- 

 em as well as older ones, when speaking of the language of Petronius, have not care- 

 fully enough discriminated between the different portions of the book, charging upon 

 Petronius defects of language which evidently belong to the persons introduced by him. 

 It would be easy, if it were necessary, to mention instances of this superficial mode of 

 proceeding. It is one of the great excellences of the Satyricon, and an excellence 

 which will at once be noticed by the attentive reader, that the persons introduced are 

 drawn consistently and truthfully. The skill and tact displayed by the author in ap- 

 prehending and portraying the peculiarities of birth, education, and social position, are 

 not limited to the representation of classes, but extend to that of indinduals. Each 

 one has his own character, and speaks in language in keeping with it. The vain, good- 

 natured, purse-proud, ignorant,* and irascible Trimalchio differs in his language quite 

 as much as in the other characteristics of his person, mind, and situation, from the sturdy 

 Hermeros, — who, though a native of a foreign country, had come in his early youth to 

 Italy, and, imbibing the feelings and opmions of an Italian, adopted also the language 

 of the native inhabitants, which retains yet much of the raciness and vigor, nay, even 

 coarseness, which we find in the language of Plautus, — or from the vulgar, gossiping, 

 and superstitious Niceros, as he shows himself in his story of the man- wolf (versipeUis). 

 But for this very reason, because individuals and their peculiarities are represented, and 

 represented Avith life-Hke fidelity, their language affords little or no aid in the solution 

 of the question concerning the age of the author and his work. It would be necessarj' 

 to ascertain how far the personal character controlled and modified the feelings, views, 

 and language of the class to which the indi\idual belongs ; and this again could be 

 accomplished only by a careful comparison of the language of these persons with that 

 of other persons of the same class and condition. But the materials for such a com- 



* Some of the instances of Trimalchio's ignorance are highly amusing ; for example, the account which 

 he gives to his companions of a passage in Homer (c. 59. 3) : " Scitis, inquit, quam fabulam agant .' Dio- 

 medes et Ganymedes duo fratres fuerunt ; horum soror erat Helena. Agamemnon illam rapuit, et Dianae 

 cervam subjecit. Ita nunc Homerus dicit, quemadmodum inter sc pugnent Trojani et Parentini. Vicit sci- 

 licet, et Iphigeniam, filiam suam, Achilli dedit uxorem ; ob earn rem Ajax insanit, et statim argumentum 

 explicabit." 



VOL. VI. >"EW SERIES. 17 



