The Satyricon; The Apocolocyntosis of the Divine Claudius (Penguin Classics)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, statesman, philosopher, advocate and man of letters, was born at Cordoba in Spain around 4 BC. He rose to prominence in Rome, pursuing a career in the courts and political life, for which he had been trained, while also acquiring celebrity as an author of tragedies and essays. Falling foul of successive emperors (Caligula in AD 39 and Claudius in AD 41), he spent eight years in exile, allegedly for an affair with Caligula’s sister. Recalled in AD 49, he was made praetor and was appointed tutor to the boy who was to become, in AD 54, the emperor Nero. On Nero’s succession, Seneca acted for some eight years as an unofficial chief minister. The early part of this reign was remembered as a period of sound government, for which the main credit seems due to Seneca. His control over Nero declined as enemies turned the emperor against him with representations that his popularity made him a danger, or with accusations of immorality or excessive wealth. Retiring from public life he devoted his last three years to philosophy and writing, particularly the Letters to Lucilius. In AD 65 following the discovery of a plot against the emperor, in which he was thought to be implicated, he and many others were compelled by Nero to commit suicide. His fame as an essayist and dramatist lasted until two or three centuries ago, when he passed into literary oblivion, from which the twentieth century has seen a considerable recovery.

The Satyricon; The Apocolocyntosis PETRONIUS

Introduction

The Author and Date of the Satyricon

The Extent of the Work and the Plot

The Literary Qualities of the Satyricon

On the Text and Translation

Acknowledgments

The Satyricon

Puteoli

Dinner with Trimalshio

Eumolpus

The Road to Croton

Croton

The Fragments and the Poems

List of Characters

Notes on the Satyricon

Notes on the Fragments and Poems

SENECA

Introduction

The Authorship and Date of the Apocolocyntosis

The Place of the Work in Seneca's Writings

The Literary Qualities of the Apocolocyntosis

On the Text and Translation

The Apocolocyntosis of the Divine Claudius

Notes on the Apocolocyntosis