{"id":11827,"date":"2019-05-16T17:57:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T00:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11827"},"modified":"2019-05-16T17:57:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T00:57:49","slug":"our-modern-satyricon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-modern-satyricon\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Modern \u2018Satyricon\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometime around A.D. 60, in the age of Emperor Nero, a Roman court insider named Gaius Petronius wrote a satirical Latin novel, \u201cThe Satyricon,\u201d about moral corruption in Imperial Rome. The novel\u2019s general landscape was Rome\u2019s transition from an agrarian republic to a globalized multicultural superpower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The novel survives only in a series of extended fragments. But there are enough chapters for critics to agree that the high-living Petronius, nicknamed the \u201cJudge of Elegance,\u201d was a brilliant cynic. He often mocked the cultural consequences of the sudden and disruptive influx of money and strangers from elsewhere in the Mediterranean region into a once-traditional Roman society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The novel plots the wandering odyssey of three lazy, overeducated and mostly underemployed single young Greeks: Encolpius, Ascyltos and Giton. They aimlessly mosey around southern Italy. They panhandle and mooch off the nouveau riche. They mock traditional Roman customs. The three and their friends live it up amid the culinary, cultural and sexual excesses in the age of Nero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Certain themes in \u201cThe Satyricon\u201d are timeless and still resonate today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amgreatness.com\/2019\/05\/15\/our-modern-satyricon\/\">Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Sometime around A.D. 60, in the age of Emperor Nero, a Roman court insider named Gaius Petronius wrote a satirical Latin novel, \u201cThe Satyricon,\u201d about moral corruption in Imperial Rome. The novel\u2019s general landscape was Rome\u2019s transition from an agrarian republic to a globalized multicultural superpower. The novel survives [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-34L","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13417,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/eeyores-cabinet-a-too-decadent-culture\/","url_meta":{"origin":11827,"position":0},"title":"Eeyore&#8217;s Cabinet: The Decadent Culture","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Swing by Jean-Honor\u00e9 Fragonard, 1767: Detail Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers I've been reading the\u00a0Satyricon\u00a0again, which I taught for a number of years in early imperial Latin literature classes for advanced Latin students. The Latin, outside of the slang and neologisms, and the fragmented text, is pretty easy.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fragonard-the-swing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fragonard-the-swing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fragonard-the-swing.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fragonard-the-swing.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6371,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/an-american-satyricon\/","url_meta":{"origin":11827,"position":1},"title":"An American Satyricon","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Our elites would be right at home in Petronius's world of debauchery and bored melodrama. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online Sometime in the mid-first century\u00a0a.d., an otherwise little known consular official, Gaius Petronius, wrote a brilliant satirical novel about the gross and pretentious new Roman-imperial elite. The\u00a0Satyricon\u00a0is an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Popular Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Popular Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/popular-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/9274129830_82033fb5a7-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":690,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-summer-with-virgil\/","url_meta":{"origin":11827,"position":2},"title":"A Summer With Virgil","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Defining Ideas \u201cTo read the Latin & Greek authors in their original,\u201d Thomas Jefferson once wrote, \u201cis a sublime luxury.\u201d Fortunately, for those who don\u2019t read Greek and Latin, the great works of Classical literature are available in first-rate translations. The following five classics are some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bruce S. Thornton&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10967,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/02-09-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":11827,"position":3},"title":"02\/09\/18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry(?) Reader: Greetings Professor Hanson! For many years now, I have followed you on talk radio, TV interviews, YouTube videos, books and published articles. I greatly appreciate your commitment to truth, accurate history and the application of those two principles to current events. Your reasoning and observations are\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6935,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/duty-and-the-taint-of-the-tell-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":11827,"position":4},"title":"&#8216;Duty,&#8217; and the Taint of the Tell-All","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Gates's insider memoir is the latest in a dishonorable genre. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 For all the hysteria over former defense secretary Robert Gates\u2019s new insider memoir of his tenure during the Bush and Obama administrations, the disclosures are more breaches of trust than earth-shattering revelations.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Literature&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Literature","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9421,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-great-regression\/","url_meta":{"origin":11827,"position":5},"title":"The Great Regression","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, it seems that Orwell\u2019s 1984 would better have been titled 2016. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Technical progress is often associated with moral and political regress, a theme as ancient as Hesiod\u2019s seventh-century b.c. poem Works and Days. In 200 b.c., not a male could vote\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11828,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11827\/revisions\/11828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}