Petronius

Petronius was distinguished by his aesthetic sense and his ability to make accurate judgments, which led to him being recognized as the “arbiter of good taste” (arbiter elegantiarum). His opinions were supposedly valued even by Emperor Nero himself. However, not everyone accepted the poet’s high position; as a result, a conspiracy was formed against him, and Petronius, anticipating the worst, committed suicide.

Petronius is traditionally credited with authorship of the satirical adventure novel Satyricon liber (The Satyricon), although the work has survived only in fragments. It is written in the form of a Greek romance and presents, in a humorous yet highly realistic manner, the lives of various social groups in contemporary Roman society.