Petronius Dinner With Trimalchio

894 Words2 Pages

Allie Szczerba
World Civilization
9/24/14

Petronius’ “Dinner with Trimalchio”

In the Roman novel, The Satyricon written by Petronius, the main character Trimalchio, is a freedman who has obtained power and wealth all on his own. During the second half of the first century of the Roman Empire, there are distinct barriers between the way the wealthy live and the way the slaves live. Trimalchio is married to a woman named Fortunata who runs Trilmachio’s business affairs and is very sharp-witted.
Throughout the chapter “Dinner with Trimalchio,” we learn that Trimalchio is known for throwing sumptuous dinner parties in which his numberless guests attend. At his dinner, Petronius and most of the guests are nouveau-rich. Trimalchio is a very wealthy …show more content…

Trimalchio demands that all his guests enter the dining room with their right foot; this is supposed to bring good luck. If one of the guests crossed the threshold the wrong way, a slave would get in trouble. (53) Even if these slaves had done nothing serious, they could easily get beaten with a whip or stick as punishment or torture. Shortly after entering the dining room, the hands of the guests are to be washed in water and their toenails are to be trimmed by the slave boys. Just to show how really superior he is over all his guests and servants, Trimalchio shows off by being smothered in perfume and being rubbed down. Not with linen towels either, but with bath robes made of the finest wool. (52) Trimalchio also tries to stand out by wearing bright colors, while his slaves just blend in.
Also illustrated in this chapter is the treatment of the chef after he disturbs dinner by forgetting to gut the pig. Trimalchio tells the chef that nothing better be wrong with the pig or something bad is going to happen to him. We come to find out that the pig wasn’t gutted properly so Trimalchio made the chef get naked in front of all his guests. Trimalchio wouldn’t even eat the pig because it had to be perfectly cleaned. This goes to show how the lower class had more pressure on them to be perfect. Trimalchio even wanted to kill the chef for forgetting to clean the pig, but his guests stopped him.

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