Petronius's ''

Satyricon The ''Satyricon'', ''Satyricon'' ''liber'' (''The Book of Satyrlike Adventures''), or ''Satyrica'', is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as Titus Petr ...

'', the only extant realistic

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...

novel (probably written c. AD 60), survives in a very fragmentary form. Many readers have wondered how the story would begin and end. Between 1629 and the present several authors in various languages have attempted to round the story out. In certain cases, following a well-known conceit of historical fiction, these invented supplements have been claimed to derive from newly discovered manuscripts.

José Antonio González de Salas, 1629

José Antonio González de Salas (born 1588, died 1654) published an edition of the ''Satyricon'' in 1629; it was reissued in 1643 with a portrait. It included linking passages (in Latin) which de Salas claimed to have taken from an earlier Paris edition, but this does not exist. It is assumed that he invented them. The only English translation that includes these passages is by Firebaugh (1922).

François Nodot, 1693

In October, 1690, François Nodot, a French writer and

mercenary soldier A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...

, announced a remarkable discovery to the French academies. A certain du Pin, a French officer, had been present at the sack of Belgrade in 1688 and came across a manuscript, a copy of which he had sent to Nodot. It proved to contain supplements to the known text of the ''Satyricon''. Nodot's claims were initially accepted, and the supplements were thought to be genuine. They were published as such in 1693, but soon gave rise to suspicion. They were conclusively shown to be spurious by

Pieter Burmann the Elder Pieter Burman (1668 – 31 March 1741), also known as Peter or Pieter Burmann ( la, Petrus Burmannus). and posthumously distinguished from his nephew as "the Elder" ( la, Senior), was a Dutch classical scholar. Life Burman was born at Utr ...

(whose Latin edition of Petronius appeared in 1709), yet they were sometimes printed in editions of the real fragments down to the early 20th century. The Nodot additions were translated into English by William Burnaby in 1694, into French by Héguin de Guerle, and into various other languages. Translations incorporating Nodot's supplements continued to appear in print until the early 20th century. They are currently included (in English) in at least three online versions of the ''Satyricon''.

José Marchena, 1800

José Marchena Ruiz de Cueto José Marchena Ruiz de Cueto (November 18, 1768 – January 31, 1821), also known as Abate Marchena, was a Spanish author, who studied with distinction at the University of Salamanca. He was born at Utrera. He took minor orders and was for some t ...

, a Spaniard, was at

Basle , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...

in 1800, attached to the staff of the French general Moreau. In his spare time he wrote scholarly notes on ancient sexuality, and eventually constructed a supplement to Petronius which illustrated his researches. He translated the fragment into French, attached the notes, and published the book as ''Fragmentum Petronii'' (Paris? 1800), claiming that the fragment was by Petronius and the translation and notes were by a certain Doctor of Theology named "Lallemand". In Marchena's preface, dedicated to the Napoleonic Army of the Rhine, he states that he found the fragment in a manuscript of the work of Saint Gennadios on the Duties of Priests; close examination had revealed that it was a

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...

and that this fragment formed the underlying text. According to Stephen Gaselee "in every line it has exactly the Petronian turn of phrase." An English translation of both text and notes is included in Firebaugh's 1922 translation of the ''Satyricon''. The Latin text of the fragment, very rare in its original edition, is included in W.K. Kelly's 1854 translation of the ''Satyricon''.

H.C. Schnur, 1968

H.C. Schnur's German translation of the ''Satyricon'', published in 1968, includes an original supplement to the story written by the translator.

Andrew Dalby, 2005

In 2005, Andrew Dalby published an epilogue to the ''Satyricon'', a narrative of a dinner party set at

Massilia Massalia (Greek: Μασσαλία; Latin: Massilia; modern Marseille) was an ancient Greek colony founded ca. 600 BC on the Mediterranean coast of present-day France, east of the river Rhône, by Ionian Greek settlers from Phocaea, in Western An ...

twenty years after the dramatic date of the surviving text.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book , author=McElroy, Hugh , date=2000–2001 , section=The reception and use of Petronius: Petronian pseudepigraphy and imitation , title=Ancient Narrative , volume=1 , pages=350 ff , url=http://www.ancientnarrative.com/archive/antocvol01.htm , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312014946/http://www.ancientnarrative.com/archive/antocvol01.htm , archive-date=2007-03-12 Latin texts Historical novels Literary forgeries Works based on the Satyricon