Petronius 8: A Poetical Analysis

A close reading of a lesser-known poem of the early Roman Empire.

Poetry was a common practice widely enjoyed in the ancient world. Names like Ovid and Horace are often on the tongues of literate men, but the ancients testify that figures like Caesar and Cicero composed some ideas in meter. Petronius is one such name most often ascribed to the author of the Satyricon, but historians cannot be precisely certain whether that man is the same one who served as consul under the Emperor Nero. When talking about the latter, historians use the praenomen Titus, but the extant codices of his works call him Gaius. The earliest person to collate the two figures as the same was Sidonius Apollinaris, and no evidence to the contrary has appeared since. Among Petronius’ fragmentary works, one complete poem shines through as a gem: Number 8, beginning “Parvula securo tegitur mihi culmine sedes,” is a pastoral about the happiness that can be found in rustication. The poet lists the areas on his farm that he takes the most pride in, and says that if he were to die anywhere, he would want to be in the place that shows the gods how fruitful his labor has been. Below, I have reproduced Michael Heseltine’s translation:

My little house is covered by a roof that fears no harm, and the grape swollen with wine hangs from the fruitful elm. The boughs yield cherries, the orchards ruddy apples, and the trees sacred to Pallas break under the wealth of their branches. And now where the smooth soil drinks from the runnels of the spring, Corycian kale springs up for me and creeping mallows, and the poppy with promise of untroubled sleep. Moreover, if my pleasure is to lay snares for birds, or if I choose rather to entrap the timid deer, or draw out the quivering fish on slender line, so much deceit is all that is known to my humble fields. Go, then, and barter the hours of flying life for rich banquets. My prayer is that since at the last the same end waits for me, it may find me here, here call me to account for the time that I have spent.¹