SOURCE: "The Date and Authorship of the 'Satyricon'," in The Phoenix, Vol. II, 1954, pp. 3-26.

In the following essay, Bagnani explains the difficulties and contradictions that must be overcome in determining the authorship and date of composition of the Satyricon; rejects arguments of other scholars that involve circular reasoning; and concludes that it was written by the Petronius described in Tacitus's Annals around the year 60.

Notes upon books outdo the books themselves.
J. BRAMSTON

The present state of the "Petronius Question" can only be described as unsatisfactory. Though "the accepted date and authorship are likely to remain in favour," we are constantly being reminded that these assumptions "are only presumptive, not proved."¹ It is characteristic of the unsatisfactory state of the question that the very same passage has been used to prove that the Satiricon was written after Commodus, and to prove that it was written under Nero...