Petronius: Selections from the Satiricon/Satyricon 

Description

Petronius: Selections from the Satiricon/Satyricon

Petronius: Selections from the Satiricon (or Satyricon, depending on edition) presents excerpts from this 1st century AD novel in an easy reading format. The Satyricon only survives in fragments. The fragments are substantial enough that scholars fairly confidently declare it to be the western world’s first novel. The author Petronius enjoyed the reputation of being the Emperor Nero’s “Arbiter of Taste.” He was fixture of Nero’s flamboyant court. That is, until the jealous courtier Tigellinus engineered his downfall. Petronius then determined to depart on his own terms and committed suicide.

Petronius drew on his experience of the bizarre and wanton side of humanity in his novel. He peoples it with memorable characters whose exploits are sometimes hilariously funny, at other time disturbing. Not all readers will find some of the more objectionable behavior to their taste. But, we can say this for the Satyricon, at least. It is never dry reading.

Features of the Text

In his introduction, Prof. Lawall tells us that several students from his Petronius seminar at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst assembled the basic material for the book in 1973. Lawall himself edited it into publishable shape in the following year.

The book makes Petronius’ original text accessible to readers by including voluminous notes and running vocabulary. The text appears on the top half of the page with reading notes beneath. Vocabulary is on the facing page. New vocabulary words appear in the lists the first four times that they come up in the text.  Lawall has a list at the beginning of the volume of 80-120 (depending on edition) or so “basic words” that never show up in the facing vocabulary. He advises us that we should already be familiar with these before we begin. Most students who have had the equivalent of two years of high school Latin or one year at the college level will already know just about all of these words. These and all words that appear more than four times are included in the glossary in the back of the book.

 

Our Copies  

The copies available here are softcovers that have done honorable service in a high school classroom.  These books would list as acceptable or good on the major book selling websites. Accordingly, they show some wear but are complete and intact. They have all their pages.  The pages have little writing and marking. Some pencil marking may have been erased.

We have copies from two different editions.   There are five copies from the 1988 edition. In these the list of prior vocabulary is just over 80 words. They contain a brief introduction to Petronius and the Satiricon (the fourth letter here is “i”). The typeface is courier or something similar. It looks a little primitive by current standards.

We also have five copies from the 1995 edition. The spelling of the title is now the more usual Satyricon. Here the prior vocabulary list is c. 120 words long. Since the basic text is the same, these are probably words that escaped notice in earlier editions. There is also a somewhat expanded introduction. The main addition here is a brief discussion of some of the colloquial language in the book. There is also an appendix in the back dealing with language and style. The typeface is more professional in appearance (and easier on the eyes).

Our Low Price  

1988 edition: $20.00 a copy, with no shipping fee.  $17.00 each for 3 or more copies.

1995 edition: $25.00 a copy, with no shipping fee.  $21.25 each for 3 or more copies.

Contact us here for return information.

You can also contact us with questions, comments, suggestions, and non-sequiturs at:

aeternalatina@gmail.com