Discussion Questions

Petronius. Satyricon

1. In Greece we hear very little about the transition from slave to free status. Discuss the social position of slaves in Roman imperial society.

2. Although The Satyricon is unlike any other literary work that has come down to us from antiquity, it is nonetheless influenced by and conscious of its predecessors. In particular, since The Satyricon is a long narrative, it frequently compares and contrasts itself with the noblest and most monumental narrative of antiquity, the epic. Show and explain some of these references.

3. Discuss the following statement by F. D. Goodyear:

Trimalchio is a complex character; he now wallows in luxury and self-deception, but was once resilient and faced a hard world on its own terms. For all his coarseness and ostentation, he is not utterly unlikeable.

4. The same critic says of the characters who speak at the banquet when Trimalchio is absent: "they are characterized by what they say as well as by the way they speak." Discuss with specific examples.

5. What view of life emerges here? What cultural developments seem to precipitate this kind of satiric vision?