PETRONIUS, C., a Roman voluputary at the con-t of Nero, whose profligacy is said to have been of the most superb and elegant descrim,.... We know, however, very little about him. He was at one time proconsul of Bithynia, was subsequently appointed consul, and is certified as having performed his official duties with energy and prudence. But his grand ambition was to shine as a court exquisite. • He was a kind of Roman Bruntmell, and Nero thought as highly of him as did the prince regent of the famous Beau. Be was intrusted by his imperial master and companion with the charge of the royal entertainments, and thus obtained (according to Tactitus) the title of Arbiter Ele gantice. Nero would not venture to pronounce anything conme ittout, until it had received the approval of the oracle of Roman fashion. The influence which he thus acquired was the cause of his ruin. Tigellinus, another favorite of Nero, conceived a hatred of Pet•onius, brought false accusations against him, and succeeded in getting his whole household arrested. Petronius saw that his destruction was inevitable, and committed suicide (66 n.c.), but in languid and graceful style, such, he thought, as became his life.
He opened some veins, but every now and then applied bandages to them, and thus stoppud the flow of blood, so that he was for a while enabled to gossip gayly with his friends, and even to appear in the streets of Cumin, before he died. We are told that he wrote, scaled, and dispatched to Nero, a few hours before his death, a paper containing au account of the tyrant's crimes and flagitious deeds. It has been generally supposed that Petronius is the author of a well-known work entitled, in the oldest MSS., Pet•onii Arbitri Satyricon, a series of fragments belonging apparently to a very extensive comic novel or romance (see NovEr.$), the greater portion of which has perished, but there is really no satisfactory evidence to show whether or not he was so. it is probable, however, that the work belongs to the 1st c. A.D. The fragments exhibit a horrible picture of the depravity of the times; but there is no indication that the author disapproves of what he describes. The editio prineeps of the fragments appeared at Venice in 1499; later editions are those of Burman (Traj. ad. Rhen. 1709; 2d edit. Amst. 1743), and of Antonius (Leip. 1781).