Petronius the Poet: Verse and Literary Tradition in the Satyricon

This book investigates the thirty short poems and two long ones that form part of Petronius’ Satyricon, the oldest surviving work of prose fiction in the Western tradition. Unlike general studies of Petronius that do not consider the verse in much detail, and a recent commentary on the short poems that treats them in isolation, this book presents detailed close readings of these poems in their fictional and literary historical contexts. All Latin and Greek is translated.