11 h 2 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 2 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to love, art and honesty when everyone is hungry for money, pleasure or applause?
In The Satyricon, Encolpius has some education and no steady income. He drifts through southern Italy with Giton, his lover, and Ascyltos, his companion and rival. Affection sparks quarrels, and the search for easy gain leads to bizarre scrapes. This fragmentary Latin comic novel, usually linked to Petronius, offers no tidy path through its world of appetite and schemes.
At the center stands Trimalchio’s lavish dinner, where a former slave wants every guest to admire his wealth and taste. Around him, guests talk in rough, lively slang. Elsewhere, hungry students, cheats and bad poets crowd the scene. Prose mingles with verse, ghost stories and street talk, while the jokes expose a world where almost everyone wants something.
What you’ll discover
- A feast of vanity Join Trimalchio’s guests as lavish hospitality becomes a display of wealth and wounded pride.
- Love tangled with rivalry Follow Encolpius, Giton and Ascyltos through jealous quarrels, shifting affection and clever escapes.
- Roman life from below Meet freedmen, drifters and hungry students whose rough talk gives the satire its bite.
- Poetry meets street talk Discover a restless mix of verse, sermons, ghost stories and quarrels within the surviving fragments.
- Appetite under the jokes Look beneath the rude humor at what the pursuit of pleasure does to honesty.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy sharp social comedy, vivid characters who talk like real people, outrageous feasts, and an ancient Rome as crowded as a modern city.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A complaint about schools opens the tale
- Two scholars live by theft and trickery
- Trimalchio's house is a show of wealth
- Freedmen talk and tell tales of terror
- Trimalchio plans his own tomb and funeral
- A poet and a ship bring old enemies back
- A trickster poet leads them into Crotona
- Money and rank rule every scene
- Appetite and death sit at the same table
- A narrator, many voices, and mixed forms
Who’s who
- EncolpiusA young scholar and the narrator, he lives by his wits, loves Giton and keeps stumbling into trouble.
- GitonA young and charming companion of Encolpius, he is loved by several people and slips between loyalties to survive.
- AscyltosEncolpius's friend and rival, he is quick to fight, ready to steal and eager for whatever pleasure is next.
- TrimalchioA former slave turned millionaire, he stages a huge dinner and wants everyone to admire his wealth and his planned tomb.
- FortunataTrimalchio's wife, who watches the money, scolds the guests and takes her place in the household's spotlight.
- EumolpusAn old, shabby poet who recites verse at every chance and later leads a scheme to trick the town of Crotona.
- QuartillaA priestess of Priapus who demands payment for a broken ritual and arranges a wild night for the young men.
- LycasA shipmaster who holds a grudge against Encolpius and meets him again on a voyage.
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Le Satyricon — édition complète
by Pétrone · 65
A hungry student enters a feast whose host ends the evening by rehearsing his own funeral.
Challenging10–20 hours to readfrançais
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In short
What do you do when you are broke, clever and hungry, and a rich former slave invites you to dinner? Encolpius, the young narrator of the Satyricon, finds out at a feast where a silver skeleton is tossed onto the table.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A complaint about schools opens the tale
The story begins in the middle of a speech. Encolpius attacks the teachers of rhetoric, the art of public speaking. He says they feed young men on pirates in chains and tyrants who order sons to behead their fathers, so the pupils learn nothing about daily life.
A teacher named Agamemnon answers with surprising honesty. Parents push their boys into the courts too soon, and pupils demand showy exercises, so a teacher who refuses is left in an empty school. He offers a cure in verse: strict discipline and the great writers. Nobody in the story follows it.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 65
- Language
- français
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Petronius Arbiter. The Satyricon — Complete. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-satyricon-complete.
Petronius Arbiter. (2026). The Satyricon — Complete. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-satyricon-complete (Original work published ca. 65)
Petronius Arbiter. The Satyricon — Complete. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-satyricon-complete.
@book{petroniusarbiter2026satyricon,
author = {Petronius Arbiter},
title = {The Satyricon — Complete},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-satyricon-complete},
note = {First published ca. 65}
}
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What is the Satyricon about?
It follows Encolpius and his young companion Giton through the towns of southern Italy, where they meet thieves, priests, poets and rich former slaves. The best-known scene is the feast of Trimalchio, a comic portrait of wealth and show.
Who is Trimalchio in the Satyricon?
Trimalchio is a former slave who has become enormously rich. He hosts a lavish, odd dinner where he boasts of his estates, reads his will aloud and plans his own tomb and funeral, all while insulting his own wife and guests.
When was the Satyricon written and by whom?
It was written in the first century by Petronius Arbiter, who died in 66. Tradition links him to the court of Nero. The work is a comic satire and survives only in fragments, not as a complete book.
The author
Petronius Arbiter
27–66 · Roman satirical novelist
1st century AD Roman courtier and author of the Satyricon.
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