Petronius

Gaius Petronius Arbiter, commonly known simply as Petronius, was a Roman courtier active during the reign of Emperor Nero in the mid-1st century CE. He is best known as the presumed author of the Satyricon, a fragmentary Latin work that blends prose and verse and is widely regarded as one of the earliest novels. In contemporary sources he is described as an elegant and cultivated man, earning the nickname arbiter elegantiae, or judge of elegance.

Very little reliable information survives about his life beyond his role at Nero's court. Suetonius identifies him as a leading figure in Nero's circle and recounts that he reportedly fell from grace and was compelled to take his own life after a decline in favor. The surviving accounts are sparse and sometimes contradictory, making it difficult to distinguish fact from rumor.

The Satyricon itself is a sprawling, episodic work that mixes social satire, travelogue, and fantasy. It survives in incomplete form and exists in several late antique manuscripts. Its most famous section, Cena Trimalchionis (The Banquet of Trimalchio), depicts a lavish Roman dinner and a class-conscious panorama of Roman society. The narrative follows Encolpius, his lover Giton, and their companion Ascyltos as they wander through the margins of the empire, encountering appetite, sexuality, and social pretensions. Most scholars date the composition to the mid to late 1st century CE, though the exact chronology and authorship have been debated.

Petronius's work is valued for its stylistic sophistication and for its unvarnished depiction of Roman social life, including class pretensions, sexual mores, and the performative culture of the imperial capital. It influenced later satirical and narrative traditions and remains a key source for understanding the literary culture of Nero's age. The attribution to Petronius Arbiter is widely accepted, though the text exists only in fragments and secondary interpolations.