PETRO'NIUS, (=Airs. A Roman voluptuary at the Court of Nero, whose profligacy is said to have been of the most superb and elegant descrip tion. We know. however, very little about him. Ile was at One time prOe011Snl of Bithynia, was subsequently appointed consul, and is said to have performed hi- official duties with energy and prudence. But his grand ambition was to shine as a Court exquisite. Ile was intrusted by his im perial master and companion with the charge of the royal entertainments, and thus obtained (ac cording to Taeitus) the title of Arbiter Elegan t ift.. The influence which he thus acquired was the canse of his ruin. Tigellinns. another favorite of Nero, comeived a hatred of Prt•onins, ht ought false accusations against bill], and succeeded in getting his whole household arrested. Petronius saw that his destruction was inevitable, and Conn !flitted suicide, me. cif, lint in languid and grace ful style. such. lie thought, as became his life. lie opened some Veins, but every now and then applied bandages to them. and thus stopped the flow of blood. so that lie was for a while enabled to gossip gayly with his friend:, and even to ap pity in the street. of Crime, before he died. We are Itild that he wrote, sealed, and dispatched to Nero. a few hours before his death, a paper con taining an account of the tyrant's crimes and flagitious deeds. Petronius is generally believed to have been the author of a very remark able ancient romance, or satire, which has sur vived in part ler the name of Petronii Jrbilri Nalirirmi. an extensive work of fiction, of which
fragments and a long episode entitled The ?`_.? up per of Tritanlcbio Wena Trinuilehionis) were disenvc-rr,l in the seventeenth century and pub at Paris in As a description of one phase of life in the first century of the Christian Era the work is invaluable. while to the student of Latin it offers the best example of the collo quial language of the time. The exaggerated pic ture of the vulgar society of a nuurruu-rirlrr is often disagreeable. hut always amusing. The is laid in some small lint fashionable town of Canmania. perhaps Baia. or Puteoli. probably under Nero. or shortly before. The standard text is that of 18621. with a smaller edition (Berlin. 1S9.51. There is an edition of the Pena episode alone. with eIcrwan translation and commentary. by Friedliinder i Leipzic. 1s91 1. find an edition with introduction and commentary by Waters (Boston. 19011. Ali the fragments were translated into English by Kelly (London, 1856) ; and there is a recent and very sympa thetic translation of the Cow. with an excellent introduction, by Peck (New York, l898). For the vocabulary of Petronins, see the Lexicon Pe tronianum of Segebade mid Lemmatzsch (Leip zig, 189S). Compare, also, Collignon, Etude sur Petrone (Paris, ]S112).