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Petronius
Life Time
1 January 14 - 1 January 66
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Petronius, Gaius; Petronius, Gaius, called Arbitrator, d. in 66, Roman writer and poet. The scant information that we have about Petronia has come down to us only thanks to a short passage from the chronicles of Tacitus, where the atmosphere of that time is so figuratively conveyed that it is worth giving this description in its entirety: By day he slept, worked at night and indulged in the joys of life. The success that most people achieve with hard work, he achieved laziness. And yet, unlike those
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Petronius, Gaius; Petronius, Gaius, called Arbitrator, d. in 66, Roman writer and poet.
The scant information that we have about Petronia has come down to us only thanks to a short passage from the chronicles of Tacitus, where the atmosphere of that time is so figuratively conveyed that it is worth giving this description in its entirety: By day he slept, worked at night and indulged in the joys of life. The success that most people achieve with hard work, he achieved laziness. And yet, unlike those burners of life who waste both themselves and their fortunes in vain, he was not considered either a spender or a libertine, but rather a refined lover of sugar. In Adele himself, in his words and actions, there is so much deliberate randomness and peculiar novelty that people find them increasingly attractive. Nevertheless, as governor and consul of the province of Bitinia, he proved himself a capable and energetic administrator. Later, Petronius returned to a life of vice (or at first glance, vicious), and his taste was considered in the chosen circle of Nero's close associates. When the emperor dispensed with the advice of Petronius, Nero's leisure or entertainment could hardly be called exquisite or luxurious. Therefore Tigellinius, jealous of a rival whose experience in the science of pleasure was far superior to his own, tried to play on the cruelty of the emperor and accused Petronius of being friends with the conspirator Savius. A slave was bribed to charge Petronius; the prisoner was not granted legal protection and most of his household property was under arrest.
The emperor was in Campania at the time. Petronius reached Koum, where he was captured. Expectations and fears inevitably accompanied his fate, and this was unbearable, but Petronius had no intention of vainly ending his life. He slit his veins, then bandaged them, obeying the quirks of his own imagination, never stopping talking to his friends, and there was no seriousness, sadness or false courage in their conversation. He listened to their conversations or light, frivolous poetry, and not to maxims about the immortality of the soul or philosophical reasoning. Then he rewarded one of his slaves, and appointed a flogging. He ate lunch and took a dose to make his forced death seem natural. He abandoned the traditional deathbed praise of Nero, Tigellinius and others. Instead, he listed the emperor’s orgies, naming all the love partners, whether male or female, with descriptions of Nero’s sexual experiences, and sealed them off and sent them to Nero. Then he destroyed his sealed ring so that it would be impossible to blame anyone after his death.
In the eighteenth century, the name Petronius was almost synonymous with homosexuality. Better than any other ancient Roman writer who wrote about homosexual love, including such recognized authorities as Virgil, Horace, and Catullus, Petronius conveys the saturated, obscene, cruel and at the same time sad spirit of his time.