ARBITER, the author of a kind of romance, flourished, if we may judge from the character of his style, in the first or second century. Who he really was has been much disputed, and has never been satisfactorily determined. The only historical personage who seems to have any marks of identity is a certain Caius or Titus Petronius who lived at the court of Nero. This individual, as described by Tacitus, was famous for turning the pursuit of pleasure into a professional art. He slept all day that he might be able to discharge with vigour his voluptuous avocations during night. His great aim was to grovel in sensuality in the most aesthetical manner, and to move under the stiff uniform of a top, with the simplest and easiest bearing. It is true, indeed, that his mind was for a while engaged with the graver duties of proconsul of Bithynia and of consul; but he returned with fresh eagerness to take a more leading part in his former profession. Promoted to the office of "arbiter elegantiae," or "umpire of fashion," he daily occupied himself in deciding with pompous gravity what frivolities ought to be introduced at court. Even after another courtier, named Tiggellinus, had supplanted him in Nero's favour, and his doom appeared to be fixed, he resolved to remain true to his calling till the last, by departing from the world in as easy and elegant a manner as possible. Continuing at his summer quarters at Cumae, where he then happened to be, he caused one of his veins to be opened, and bandaged up at intervals. While his heart's blood was thus dripping slowly away, he listened to giddy songs; he sauntered forth among the gay pleasure-seekers on the beach; he returned to his villa, and, reclining on a couch, discussed with his friends the gossip of the day. In this manner the heartless epicure ended his mockery of a life.

The supposed work of this Petronius, which is entitled Satyricon, and which now exists only in fragments, is to a considerable extent accordant with the character which we have just drawn. It is the narrative of the adventures of a certain Encolpius and his fellow-debauchees in their travels in the south of Italy. The coarse and vicious personages whom the tourists everywhere encountered are described with great humour and dramatic propriety. The luxurious and licentious scenes which they everywhere witnessed are depicted with minute and shameless fidelity. That part especially which is known as the Supper of Trimalchio presents a vivid picture of the profligacy of a Roman gourmet. In fact, there is everywhere throughout the descriptions an obscenity of thought expressed in an elegant and graphic form of diction, which may reasonably be supposed to have proceeded from a professed and accomplished sensualist. The best edition of Petronius is that of Burmann, in two vols. 4to, Amsterdam, 1743. The works of Petronius have been frequently translated into English. The translation of Addison (1736), and that in "Bohn's Classical Library," edited by W. Kelly (1854), deserve special mention.