Page:The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter (1922), vol. 1.djvu/27

Rh and a tenderness unknown to his contemporaries breathe, so the peculiarity of such a genius can, as it seems, be given to a noble and elevated being only. The deep contempt for prevailing immorality which naturally leads to cynicism, and a heart which beats for everything great and glorious,—virtues which then had no existence,—speak from the pages of the Roman in a language intelligible to every susceptible heart.”

c—, in his paper, “The Age of Petronius Arbiter,” concluded that the author lived and wrote between the years 6 A. D. and 34 A. D., but he overlooked the possibility that the author might have lived a few years later, written of conditions as they were in his own times, and yet laid the action of his novel a few years before. Mommsen and Haley place the time under Augustus, Buecheler, about 36–7 A. D., and Friedlaender under Nero.

d— places the scene at Naples because of the fact the city in which our heroes met Agamemnon must have been of some considerable size because neither Encolpius nor Asclytos could find their way back to their inn, when once they had left it, because both were tired out from tramping around in search of it and because Giton had been so impressed with this danger that he took the precaution to mark the pillars with chalk in order that they might not