Caius Petronius Arbiter

Petronius Arbiter (Gaius, or Titus) who is usually accepted as identical with the author of the Satyricon, flourished at the time of the emperors Claudius (AD41-54) and Nero (AD54-68), and Tacitus speaks of him in the Annals, where he describes his suicide after condemnation by Nero. At one time Governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, Petronius later became Nero's close friend and his arbiter of taste and manners. He appears to have indulged freely in the dubious life of Nero's court, yet in the Satyricon reveals a keen awareness of the wider society around him with its weaknesses and follies, as well as his own educated background in Greek and Roman literature, lore, and philosophy. The Satyricon is one of the very few light-hearted prose works from the Roman period and, with Apuleius' The Golden Ass, helped to found the picaresque tradition which later European literature adopted and embellished.