Petronius, << pih TROH nee uhs >> (?-A.D. 66), wrote the first Roman novel, the Satyricon. Only sections of the novel exist today. The work traces the adventures of three Romans as they travel in Italy. Through a mixture of prose and poetry, Petronius portrayed conditions of real life under the Roman emperor Nero. He described a society filled with dishonesty, insincerity, and vice. Nearly one-third of the surviving novel deals with a rich but uneducated man called Trimalchio and a lavish dinner party that he gave. During the dinner, Trimalchio attempts to impress his guests with what he thinks is good taste. However, the host’s showiness and vulgarity expose his cultural inferiority to his intellectually superior guests. Many scholars believe that Petronius wrote the novel to ridicule Roman society under Nero.
