The Satyricon (Oxford World's Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Great Historical Comedy
Review: An often funny, and very "real" book written by Petronius, who was the "Arbiter of Elegance" in the Court of Nero. It is a first hand account (66 AD) of how opulent and decadent the Roman Life was. I'm a high school student and this being the second time I have read the work, I find references to it in many modern literary masterpieces (Great Gatsby, etc.) I would reccommend this to anyone who is curious as to the Roman way of life and also would like to have a laugh in the process. However, it is very vulgar and very sexual, so you do need the stomach for it. I would also reccommend looking at "The Twelve Caesars" by Suetonius, a tabloid of the Roman world.

Rating:
Summary: The decadence of Nero's Rome
Review: Follow the bawdy adventures of Encolpius through the
decadence of Nero's Rome as he tries to maintain the
love of his beautiful young male slave Giton. They
must contend with an evil roommate, Ascyltus -- also
vying for the attentions of Giton -- an orgy from the
Priestess of Priapus, a shipwreck, and a severe case
of impotence.

This satire of Roman life during the time of Nero
unabashedly shows the love (and sex) between
Encolpius and Giton. Not to mention the fact that
others -- both men and women -- also are attracted to
the beauty of young Giton and sometimes have their way
with him. It's quite humorous, sometimes a little
long in the speeches (like many Greek or Roman works
of the time) and even manages to throw in some poetry.

I was actually surprised at this openness to talk
about homosexuality in the First Century A.D. I would
have thought this to be a taboo suject at the time.
After some reasearch, I discovered that Petronius
actually served under Nero as his "arbiter elegantiae"
-- which means that he advised Nero on luxury and
extravagance. He was what would be considered today a
"partier:" sleeping during the day and staying up
until all hours with both young men and women, as did
Nero. So what Petronius writes about was actually
happening -- all the extravagant dinners, the orgies,
the openness of sexuality.

I highly recommend this!

(Also, as a note on the book. It is fragmentary. The
scholars have been unable to find a complete text of
"The Satyricon" so in reading it, you need to give a
little leeway in what happens.)

Rating:
Summary: Not for the squeamish, but very amusing
Review: This is all that remains of what was apparently a much longer work - unless Petronius' allusions to lost episodes of the text are merely for effect, which they might be. The best known of the surviving sections is "Trimalchio's Dinner-party", which is devoted to a description of a vulgar and opinionated self-made man with much more money than sense or learning. The satire is razor-sharp. The book revolves around the misadventures of Encolpius (who is impotent), his lover Ascyltus, and Giton, for whose sexual favours the two of them quarrel bitterly. No account of the book would be quite complete with mentioning that little detail; so let the buyer beware. After Encolpius and Ascyltus split up, Encolpius and Giton fall in with Eumolpus, who is a thorough con man and generally a complete scoundrel. And of the same tastes as the others. Petronius drops his characters in one compromising situation after another - and leaves them to get themselves out.

Warmly recommended for the social comedy. And not pornographic.