Petronius

"The Satyricon" is one of the most outrageous and strikingly modern works to have survived from the ancient world. Most likely written by an advisor of Nero, it recounts the adventures of Encolpius and his companions as they travel around Italy, enco untering courtesans, priestesses, con men, brothel-keepers, pompous professors -and, above all, Trimalchio, the nouveau riche millionaire whose debauched feasting and pretentious vulgarity make him one of the great comic characters in literature. Est imated to date from 63 - 65 AD, and only surviving in fragments, "The Satyricon" nevertheless offers an unmatched satirical portrait of the age of Nero, in all its excesses and chaos.

`The language is refined, the smile not grave, My honest tongue recounts how men behave.´ The Satyricon is the most celebrated work of fiction to have survived from the ancient world. It can be described as the first realistic novel, the father of the pic