Rose K.F.C. The Date and Author of the Satyricon

Introduction: Sullivan J.P. — Brill, 1971. — xiv, 107 p. — (Mnemosyne, Supplements 16).Progress in Petronian studies has been continually hampered by a curious and sometimes ill-informed reluctance on the part of many scholars to accept the traditional date of the Satyricon and the identification of its author with the N eronian courtier Petronius, whose career and death are so vividly described by Tacitus (Annals 16.17-9). Since the date has been given (and variously accepted) as any time from the reign of Augustus to the middle of the third century A.D., what critic or scholar who had not thoroughly examined the complicated and muddied controversy for himself could venture to pronounce with confidence on the other important aspects of the work? As a consequence Petronian research has tended until recently to limit itself to piecemeal assaults on the historical problems, or to textual emendation and exegesis.