Petronius: Getting Started
Texts:
- Courtney, Edward. The Poems of Petronius. Atlanta 1991.
Text of poems from Satyricon and other poems attributed to
Petronius.
- Müller, K. (ed.). Petronius Satyrica. 3rd ed.,
with German translation by W. Ehlers. Standard text of the
Satyricon.
Commentaries:
- Petronius: The Satiricon, ed. by Evan T. Sage, revised
by Brady B. Gilleland. New York 1969. (introduction, text, and
commentary on entire work)
- Petronii Arbitri Cena Trimalchionis, ed. by Martin S.
Smith. Oxford 1975. (a better text of the Cena Trimalchionis with
more thorough commentary and useful appendices).
Bibliographies:
- Harrison, S.J., in Journal of Roman Studies 83
(1993).
- Schmeling, G. and J.H. Stuckey. A Bibliography of
Petronius. Leiden 1977.
- Smith, Martin S. "A Bibliography of Petronius (1954-1982),"
Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 32.3 (1985)
1624-1665.
Introductory Essays:
- Bodel, John, "The Cena Trimalchionis," in Latin Fiction:
the Latin Novel in Context, ed. H. Hofmann (London:Routledge,
1999) 38-51.
- Schmeling, G., " Petronius and the Satyrica, " in
Latin Fiction: the Latin Novel in Context, ed., H. Hofmann .
(London: Routledge, 1999) 23-37.
General Books on the Satyricon
- Conte, Gian Biagio, The Hidden Author : An Interpretation
of Petronius' Satyricon. Berkeley 1996.
- Slater. Niall W. Reading Petronius. Baltimore 1990. An
interpretation of the Satyricon using reader-response
criticism.
- Sullivan, J.P. The Satyricon of Petronius: A Literary
Study. Bloomington, IN 1968. Thorough introduction to
Petronius.
- Walsh, P.G. The Roman Novel: The "Satyricon" of Petronius
and the "Metamorphoses" of Apuleius. Cambridge, Eng. 1970.
More Specialized Works:
- Arrowsmith, William. "Luxury and Death in the Satyricon."
Arion 5 (1966) 304-331. A classic interpretation.
- Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in
Western Literature. Princeton 1953. Also a classic. Pp. 24-33
on Petronius' realism.
- Boyce, Bret. The Language of the Freedmen in Petronius'
Cena Trimalchionis. Leiden 1991. Examines the freedmen's
colloquialisms, and the way Petronius characterizes them through
their language.
- D'Arms, John H. "The "Typicality " of Trimalchio," in
Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome (Cambridge,
MA, 1981), 97-120. Relates Trimalchio to evidence of businessmen
in early imperial Rome.
- Panayotakis, Costas. Theatrical Elements in the Satyrica of
Petronius. Leiden 1995.
- Rankin, H.D. Petronius the Artist: Essays on the Satyricon
and its Author. The Hague 1971. Various essays on Tacitus'
description of Petronius, Petronius' methods of characterization,
and other items.
- Rose, K.F.C. The Date and Author of the Satyricon.
Leiden 1971. Most complete argument for the identification of the
author of the Satyricon as the Petronius described by
Tacitus.
- Tatum, James (ed.). The Search for the Ancient Novel.
Baltimore 1994. Includes an excellent essay by John Bodel on the
Cena Trimalchionis.
- Whitehead, Jane. "The 'Cena Trimalchionis' and Biographical
Narration in Roman Middle-Class Art," in Narrative and Event in
Ancient Art, ed. Peter J. Holliday. Cambridge, Eng.:
Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 299-325. Compares
descriptions of art in the Cena with art on freedmen's
tombs.
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