A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

218 PETRONIUS. PETRONIUS.
vidual by whom it was composed. In addition to forgery of such a nature could have been executed at
the considerations already indicated, which support that epoch, the sceptics were compelled reluctantly
this view of the question, it will be observed that to admit that their doubts were ill founded. The
the lamentations over the decline of correct taste in title of the Codex, commonlyknown as the Codex
eloquence, poetry, and the fine arts, and the invec- Traguriensis, was Petronii Arbitri Satyri Fragtives against the destructive influence exercised menta ex libro quinto decino et sexto decimo, and
upon the minds of the young by the system of then follow the words " Num alio genere furieducation then in fashion, and especially by the arum," &c. Stimulated, it would appear, by the
teachers of declamation, could proceed only from interest excited during the progress of this discusone who had witnessed the introduction; or at sion, and by the favour with which the new acleast the full development of that system, and quisition was now universally regarded, a certain
would have been completely out of place at an Francis Nodot published at Rotterdam (12mo.
epoch when the vices here exposed had become 1693) what professed to be the Satyricon of Pesanctioned by universal practice, and had long tronius complete, taken, it was said, from a MS.
ceased to excite animadversion or suspicion. Many found at Belgrade when that city was captured in
attempts have been made to account for the 1688, a MS. which Nodot declared had been prestrangely mutilated condition in which the piece sented to him by a Frenchman high in the imhas been transmitted to modern times. It has perial service. The fate of this volume was soon
been suggested by some that the blanks were decided. The imposture was so palpable that
caused by the scruples of pious transcribers, who few could be found to advocate the pretensions
omitted those parts which were most licentious; put forth on its behalf, and it was soon given
while others have not hesitated to declare their up by all. It is sometimes, however, printed
conviction that the worst passages were studiously along with the genuine text, but in a different
selected. Without meaning to advocate this last type, so as to prevent the possibility of mishypothesis-and we can scarcely conceive that take. Besides this, a pretended fragment, said
Burmann was in earnest when he propounded it- to have been obtained from the monastery of St.
it is clear that the first explanation is altogether Gall, was printed in 1800, with notes and a
unsatisfactory, for it appears to be impossible that French translation by Lallemand, but it seems to
what was passed over could have been more have deceived nobody.
offensive than much of what was retained. Ac- The best edition which has yet appeared, which
cording to another theory, what we now possess is so comprehensive as entirely to supersede all its
must be regarded as striking and favourite ex- predecessors, is that of Petrus Burmannus, 4to.
tracts, copied out into the common-place book of Traj. ad Rhen. 1709; and again much enlarged
some scholar in the middle ages; a supposition ap- and improved, 2 vol. 4to. Amst. 1743. It emplicable to the Supper of Trimalchio and the longer braces a vast mass of annotations, prolegomena and
poetical essays, but which fails for the numerous dissertations, collected from the writings of difshort and abrupt fragments breaking off in the ferent critics. Those who may prefer an impresmiddle of a sentence. The most simple solution of sion of more moderate size, will find the edition of
the difficulty seems to be the true one. The ex- Antonius, 8vo. Lips. 1781, correct and serviceisting MSS. proceeded, in all likelihood, from two able.
or three archetypes which may have been so much We find in the Latin Anthology, and subjoined
damaged by neglect, that large portions were ren- to all the larger editions of the Satyricon, a numdered illegible, while whole leaves and sections ber of short poems bearing the name of Petronius.
may have been torn out or otherwise destroyed. These have been collected from a great variety of
The Editio Princeps of the fragments of Petro- different sources, and are the work of many different
nius was printed at Venice, by Bernardinus de hands, it being very doubtful whether any of them
Vitalibus, 4to. 1499; and the second at Leipzig, ought to be ascribed to Petronius Arbiter.
by Jacobus Thanner, in 1500; but these editions, (The numerous biographies, dissertations, &c.
and those which followed for upwards of a hundred by Sambucus, Gyraldus, Goldastus, Solichius,
and fifty years, exhibited much less than we now Gonsalius de Salas, Valesius, &c., collected in the
possess. For, about the middle of the seventeenth edition of Burmann. Among more modern authocentury, an individual who assumed the designa- rities, we may specify Cataldo Janelli, Coder Petion of Martinlus Statilius, although his real name rottin. Neapol. 1811, vol. ii. p. cxxiii.; Dunlop,
was Petrus Petitus, found a MS. at Traun in History of Fiction, cap. ii.; Niebuhr, Klein. HisDalmatia, containing, nearly entire, the Supper of torisch. Schrijf. vol. i. p. 337, and Lectures edited
Trimalchio, which was wanting in all former by Schmitz, vol. ii. p. 325; Orelli, CoTpus Inscrip.
copies. This was published- separately at Padua, Lat. No. 1175; Weichert, Poetarum Lat. Reliq.
in a very incorrect state (8vo. 1664), without the p. 440; Meyer, Antlolog. Lat. vol. i. p. lxxiii.;
knowledge of the discoverer, again by Petitus him- Wellauer, in Jahn's Jal7rbb. Suppl. Band, x.
self (8vo. Paris, 1664), and immediately gave rise p. 194; and especially Studer, in Rlheinisches
to a fierce controversy, in which the most learned Museum, Neue Folge, vol. ii. 1. p. 50, ii. 2. p.
men of that day took a share, one party receiving 202, and Ritter, in the same work, vol. ii. 4. p.
it without suspicion as a genuine relic of anti- 561.) [W. R.]
quity, while their opponents with great vehemence PETRO'NIUS (flerpdvsvos), a writer on pharcontended that it was spurious. The strife was macy, who lived probably in the beginning of the
not quelled until the year 1669, when the MS. first century after Christ, as he is mentioned by
was despatched from the library of the proprietor, Dioscorides (De 11gater. Aled. praef. vol. i. p. 2), who
Nicolaus Cippius, at Traun, to Rome, where, classes him among the later authors (comp. St.
having been narrowly scrutinised by the most Epiphan. Adv. Haeres. i. 1. ~ 3, p. 3, ed. Colon. 1682).
competent judges, it was finally pronounced to be Fabricius (Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 361, ed. vet.)
at least three hundred years old, and, since no supposes his name to have been Petronius Niger