Petronius, Lucan, and Statius

At one point in Petronius’ Satyricon, Encolpius and his companions find themselves at the mercy of a woman named Quartilla who forces them to participate in an orgy (16.1-26.6). Although lacunose, Quartilla’s orgy is crucial to the thematic development of the Satyricon with respect to voyeurism and spectacle (McGlathery; Freudenberg), parodic initiations and theatricality (Cosci; Panayotakis; Battistón), and the wrath of Priapus (Gill; Habash).

Statian scholarship reveals the Silvae to be experimental poetry, challenging the still-dominant Augustan style based on Vergil et al., while manipulating the Domitianic patronage system (Zeiner 2005, Newlands 2002, Kershner 2010, Rühl 2015, Coffee 2015). More work remains, however, on Statius’ metapoetic attitudes within the Silvae—what Hinds calls “poetological policy statements” (Hinds 2000)—and their effect upon Statius’ poetic production (McNelis 2008, Chinn 2005).

The relationship between Petronius’s Satyrica and the Satires of Horace’s second book has been long noted in scholarship (e.g. Sandy 1969, Beck 1982). How precisely to characterize this relationship remains an important question for any appreciation of the Satyrica and its status as an important chapter in the post-Horatian evolution of the genre. Satire can either be considered just one of many sources of generic ornamentation for Petronius’ omnivorous sensibility, or it can be regarded as the key genre for interpreting the text.

Nec modus est lacrimis: Weeping Military Leaders in Latin Civil War Epic

In Book 9 of the Bellum Civile, Lucan interrupts his narrative of Caesar’s visit to Troy to acknowledge the literary shadow cast by his epic protagonist. Addressing Caesar as a rival narrator of civil war, he promises that future generations will read their texts side-by-side (venturi me teque legent; Pharsalia nostra/ vivet, 9.985-6). Although Lucan invites readers to interpret his poem as a response to Caesar’s prose, the intertexts between these two works remain understudied (Zissos 2010; Rambaud 1960).