Petronius Arbiter (Πέτρωνας Ἀρβίτης)

Life Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. The historian Tacitus identifies him as Gaius Petronius, the elegantiae arbiter ("judge of elegance") at Nero's court, a refined hedonist who had previously served as consul and governor [1]. He was accused of involvement in the Pisonian conspiracy and, while under arrest, chose a characteristically deliberate suicide, sending the emperor a catalog of Nero's debaucheries before dying [1][2]. The identification of this courtier with the author of the Satyricon is traditional but not absolutely certain [2][3].

Works His sole known work is the Satyricon (or Satyrica), a lengthy, episodic comic novel written in prose interspersed with verse. Only fragments survive, the most famous being the "Cena Trimalchionis" ("Banquet of Trimalchio") [2][3][4].

Significance Petronius is significant as the author of the Satyricon, the earliest surviving example of the Roman novel. The work is a pioneering comic-realistic fiction that provides a vivid, satirical portrait of social mobility and excess in the early Imperial period. Its mixture of prose and verse (Menippean satire) and use of colloquial speech make it a unique literary document [2][3][4].

Sources 1. Encyclopædia Britannica: Petronius Roman Author. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Petronius-Roman-author 2. Perseus Digital Library: Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Petronius. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dpetronius-arbiter-bio-1 3. World History Encyclopedia: Petronius. https://www.worldhistory.org/Petronius/ 4. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics: Petronius. https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-4872