Selections from Petronius, The Satyrica

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Petronius' Satyricon is one of the few texts that offers a glimpse into the 'real' world of the non-elite Roman. Although not a novel in the modern sense, it is an entertaining fictional account often narrated in the first person. This edition takes the reader through the text in a continuous arc to give a deeper understanding of the plot and characters than previous editions, which focus almost exclusively on one passage: the cena Trimalchionis. Supported by a detailed contextualising introduction and Companion Website resources, the Latin text is carefully annotated for students and a full vocabulary can be found at the end of the book. The selections in this edition put at centre stage the figure of Eumolpus: poet, storyteller, and would-be critic, as well as conman, swindler and lecher. He is one of the major characters in what survives of the Satyricon, he serves as an internal narrator for many of the longer embedded poems and stories, and he meditates on topics of great interest, such as the perceived decline of art, science, and culture in the contemporary Greco-Roman world. Following Eumolpus in this way enables students to get a sense of the broad plot of the Satyricon, to translate both prose and verse passages in this prosimetric text, and to consider and evaluate the Satyricon's relationship to the literary tradition.