| Popis: |
Petronius' Satyrica is uniquely situated as the Roman literary work most concerned with performance, theatricality, and the disconnect between perception and reality. Throughout the Satyrica, Petronius conjures the specter of the first princeps, Augustus. Augustan resonances are a constant occurrence in the Satyrica as Petronius' characters continuously reenact Augustan moments significant to the foundation of the principate. Such reenactments destabilize and alter any meaning essential to Augustan foundational moments leading to their subversion and thus a subversion of the principate in general. Thus, by emphasizing performances of ideological, moral, and social contradictions inherent in the princeps, Petronius presents a critique of the figure that created that role and the continuation of his legacy: that the position of princeps is a farce, that Nero was a byproduct of Augustus' creation, and that the principate had been theater from the very beginning. |
