The Language of the Freedmen in Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis

Realistic representation of the speech of the lower classes in ancient literature is largely confined to the comic genres, and Petronius' realism in this area is more thorough-going than that of any other ancient author. A vast scholarly literature has grown up around the question of how faithfully the speeches of Petronius' freedmen reflect characteristics of actual popular speech; this literature is reviewed and evaluated. A survey of the phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic peculiarities in these speeches is then undertaken, in which they are compared with other 'vulgar' Latin sources such as the Pompeian inscriptions; Petronius is in fact one of our most important early sources for the study of popular Latin. The way in which Petronius used specific varieties of non-standard Latin to characterize different freedmen speakers is explored: Petronius has subtly modulated his freedmen's speeches to reflect differing emotional states and the different attitudes of the speakers toward their social position.
The present study is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject undertaken in over forty years in any language and the only one in English.

Bret Boyce, Ph.D. (1989) in Classics, is Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics, Howard University, Washington, D.C..

'L'érudition de l'auteur est indubitable...intéressant...'
Pol Tordeur, L'Antiquité Classique, 1993.
'The study is significant for any editor, translator, or admirer of Petronius' reserved moralism and superior art.'
Alexander Gavrilov, Religious Studies Review, 1993.
'...nous avons là un livre fort utile...'
Lucienne Deschamps, Revue des Études Anciennes, 1992.
'...may be welcomed...gives us renewed access to [the text].'
Vincent Hunink, Mnemosyne, 1994.
'In the book here reviewed, I find much of good quality.'
Ernst Pulgram, Sonderdurck aus Kratylos.