PETRONIUS ARBITER, Titus, a celebrated critic and polite writer of antiquity, the favourite of Nero, supposed to be the same mentioned by Tacitus in the 16th book of his Annals. He was proconsul of Bithynia, and afterwards consul, and appeared capable of the greatest employments. He was one of Nero's principal confidants, and in a manner the superintendent of his pleasures; for that prince thought nothing agreeable or delightful but what was approved by Petronius. The great favour shown him drew upon him the envy of Tigellinus, another of Nero's favourites, who accused him of being concerned in a conspiracy against the emperor; on which Petronius was seized, and was sentenced to die. He met death with a striking indifference, and seems to have tasted it nearly as he had done his pleasures. He would sometimes open a vein and sometimes close it, conversing with his friends in the meanwhile, not on the immortality of the soul, which was no part of his creed, but on topics which pleased his fancy, as of love-verse, agreeable and passionate airs; so that it has been said "his dying was barely ceasing to live." Of this disciple of Epicurus, Tacitus gives the following character: "He was (says he) neither a spendthrift nor a debauchee, like the generality of those who ruin themselves; but a refined voluptuary, who devoted the day to sleep, and the night to the duties of his office, and to pleasure."
This courtier is much distinguished by a satire which he wrote, and secretly conveyed to Nero; in which he ingeniously describes, under borrowed names, the character of this prince. Voltaire is of opinion that we have no more of this performance but an extract made by some obscure libertine, without either taste or judgement. Peter Petit discovered at Traw in Dalmatia, in 1665, a considerable fragment containing the sequel of Trimalcion's Feast. This fragment, which was printed the year after at Padua and at Paris, produced a paper war among the learned. While some affirmed that it was the work of Petronius, and others denied it to be so, Petit continued to assert his right to the discovery of the manuscript, and sent it to Rome, where it was acknowledged to be a production of the 1st century. The French critics, who had attacked its authenticity, were silent from the moment it was deposited in the royal library. It is now generally attributed to Petronius, and found in every subsequent edition of the works of that refined voluptuary. The public did not form the same favourable opinion of some other fragments, which were extracted from a manuscript found at Belgrade in 1688, and printed at Paris by Nodot in 1694, though they are ascribed by the editor Charpentier, and several other learned men, to Petronius; yet, on account of the Gallicisms, and other barbarous expressions with which they abound, they have generally been considered as unworthy of that author. His genuine works are, 1. A Poem on the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey, translated into prose by Abbé de Marolles, and into French verse by President Bouhier, 1737, in 4to. Petronius
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Petteia.
tronus, full of fire and enthusiasm, and disgusted with Lucan's flowery language, opposed Pharsalia to Pharsalia; but his work, though evidently superior to the other in some respects, is by no means in the true style of epic poetry. 2. A Poem on the Education of the Roman Youth. 3. Two Treatises; one upon the Corruption of Eloquence, and the other on the Causes of the Decay of Arts and Sciences. 4. A Poem on the Vanity of Dreams. 5. The Shipwreck of Licas. 6. Reflections on the Inconstancy of Human Life. And, 7. Trimalcion's Banquet. To this last performance morality is not much indebted. It is a description of the pleasures of a corrupted court; and the painter is rather an ingenious courtier than a person whose aim is to reform abuses. The best editions of Petronius are those published at Venice, 1499, in 4to; at Amsterdam, 1669, in 8vo, cum notis variis; Ibid. with Boschius's notes, 1677, in 24to; and 1700, two vols. in 24to. The edition of variorum was reprinted in 1743, in two vols. 4to, with the learned Peter Burman's commentaries. Petronius died in the year 65 or 66.