The Satyricon (Illustrated‪)‬

"The Satyricon" is a Roman work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius. It is an example of Menippean satire, which is very different from the formal verse satire of Juvenal or Horace. The work contains a mixture of prose and verse, serious and comic elements and erotic and decadent passages. 


The surviving portions of the text detail the misadventures of the narrator, Encolpius, and his lover, a handsome sixteen-year-old servant boy named Giton. Throughout the novel, Encolpius has a difficult time keeping his lover faithful to him as he is constantly being enticed away by others. 


The Satyricon is one of the best examples of the Roman novel. It is also regarded as useful evidence of how lower classes lived during the early Roman Empire.