SOURCE: "Petronius and the Greek Romance," Classical Philology, Vol. XII, No. 2, April, 1917, pp. 158-72.

In the following essay, Mendell argues that the Satyricon is not a realistic but rather a romantic novel, and that it is neither a parody nor a satire, although it contains elements of both.

Some years ago Professor Abbott published in Classical Philology¹ a stimulating article entitled "The Origin of the Realistic Romance among the Romans." In that article he indicated many possible sources from which Petronius may have drawn something of his tone or matter. As Abbott himself suggests, all of these are sources for various specific characteristics of Petronius rather than ancestors from which the literary type proceeded. He concludes with the statement that "so far as our present information goes, Petronius seems to have been the inventor of the realistic romance."

Among the possible sources of Petronius, Abbott mentions the love...