Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-05-02
WHO WROTE THE
"SATYRiCON?"

= WITH WnUIE Inc
: "SATYRiCON?" :
Among he classical forgeries-and
tnere are many in~stances-the most
noted is that Of the famous "Satyri-
con. which has been ascribed to Pet
ronius, the friend, the minister, and
ffnally the victim of Nero. The first
printed EDITION Of this work appeared
IN Venice In 1899, consisted only
OF 81 pages. The world had to content
itself with this sorry and almost sole
remnant of Roman fiction for close to
q century. But then came a find
aroun which clings much mystery.
Ihis find vas made by Statileus. In
z library said to belong to Nicholas
volume containing also manuscript
copies OF Catullus. 1ibullus and Prop
ertius. he found that additional episode
IN the Petr0nian story which is known
as the Supper of Trimalchio." and
referred to by John of Salisbury.
had found to I4ucius of Trau, who
urged him to print it just as 1t was
Tor the honor OF the country" He
oul not be Prevailed upon to do so,
and when he left FRA in 1854 Lucius
told certain learned men in Padua and
Rome of the discovery and vainly ex-
horted Statileus and Cippicus to have
1t printed.
BY this 1t would seem that this
manuscript was found some time be-
fore 1854. This 10 a much earlier date
than is usually supposed. 1t has prov
ed that Statileus was at Padua be-
tween 1886 and 1916, SO that he must
nave found the manuscript toward
the latter end OF that period. which
would leave some 20 years between it's
discovery and It's flrst printed appear
ance in 1864.
The license to publish the discovery
10 dated December 2. 1868. at Padua.
In the year following it was published
9th at Padua and at Paris. the pre-
face being prefixed to both editions.
This preface gives the story Of Statil-
u and of his taking counsel about it
with the learned men OF Venice and
Holland. n more especially with John
Rhodius. who died at Rome in 1859.
Statileus here takes the place sub
sequently claimed by Lucius himself
In the matter of consulting the learned
world. Stattleus. after pressure from
the Venetian ambassador at Rome. had
readily agreed to send q copy of the
manuscript to Rome for examination.
after which F'rambolti at Padua. hav-
ing obtained 1t from Statileus, offered
1t the perusal Of the public in the ex-
act form in which he had received it
from Statileus.
This edition, though 1t had been
thus submitted to the approval Of the
learned. WAS full OF the most astound-
ing words and phrases. In March.
1865. he erudfte Frenchman. Adrian de
Vaiois. boldly declared that every page
OF 1t bore palpable marks Of forgery
and imposture. Such mOnstrous words
abounded in 1t that IL Petronius wrote
1t he must have been ignorant of Latin.
Genders. cases and d~eclensions were
all hopelessly wrong and the incidents
Of the feast clashed at many points
with Roman customs. 1t was to be re-
jected AS wholly ridiculous, said the
French scholar. It was q strong case
that he made. He was supported by a.
young critic. a German called Wagon
seti, who unhesitatingly pronounced 1t
a. forgery. Many OF It's words were
more than barbarous. they were not
even human. The work was clearly a
very recent abortion by some miserable
man.
A vigorous reply to these critics APP
lpeared in the "~Responsio." Claimed to
have een written by Statileus. but
though contemporaries accepted that 1t
was written by him such was no the
It's real author was supposed to
have been DR.. Peter Petit. of Paris.
ma have written It. but there is no
clear proof. The tradition that he did
write II il probably responsible for h
erroneous statement by many subse-
quent writer's that Petit was the actual
discoverer Of the manuscript.
It wa sent to Rome In 1868. where
It was examined by experts. who found
1t similar in writing and paper to
that of an original work OF Petrarch.
To this day no one has been able to
ascertain who wrote this literary for
.gerys