Petronius Arbiter -- dal "Dizionario di letteratura erotica" (Wedeck)

Speranza

PETRONIUS ARBITER.
--- Roman coutier and volupturary: attached to the court of the Emperor Nero.
Becoming an object of suspicion, Petronius wrote out a denunciation of the corrupton and vicious practices prevalent in imperial circles, and then committed suicide by opening his veins.
Petronius is the author of a remarkably picaresque novel.
It is known commonly under the name of "The Satyricon".
One of the major sections is entitled, "Cena Trimalchionis", The Banquet of Trimalchio.
The locale is Southern Italy, and the novel relates the salacious and perverted adventures of three disreputable young men: Encolpius the narrator and his friends Giton and Asyltus.
They are constantly involved in difficulties with the authorities and in more than dubious amatory occasions.
The episodes dealing wit their amorous practices are particularly unique in their circumstantial depiction, and reflect the looseness and depravities of the first century A. D. Scene follows scene in erotic and scatological variety.