This version by a translator who understands the high art of low humor
is conspicuously funny.--Time
The Satyricon is a classic of comedy, a superbly funny picture of
Nero's Rome as seen through the eyes of Petronius, its most amorous and
elegant courtier.
William Arrowsmith's translation--a lively, modern, unexpurgated
text--recaptures all the ribald humor of Petronius's picaresque satire.
It tells the hilarious story of the pleasure-seeking adventures of an
educated rogue, Encolpius, his handsome serving boy, Giton, and
Ascyltus, who lusts after Giton--three impure pilgrims who live by their
wits and other men's purses. The Satyricon unfailingly turns every
weakness of the flesh, every foible of the mind, to laughter.