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  • The Satyrica of Petronius: An Intermediate Reader with Commentary and Guided Review ed. by Beth Severy-Hoven
  • D. Ben Desmidt
Beth Severy-Hoven (ed.). The Satyrica of Petronius: An Intermediate Reader with Commentary and Guided Review. Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture, 50. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. Pp. xx, 312. $24.95 (pb.). ISBN 978–0-8061–4438–2.

Students almost as a rule fall into a gap between courses in beginning Latin and those that read real authors, a problem that has many causes but no simple solution. Beth Severy-Hoven’s new edition of unadapted selections from Petronius’ [End Page 437] Satyrica is one textbook that approaches the problem from the intermediate rather than the beginning side of the issue. The book is designed to provide undergraduate and high-school students who have completed a beginning course with all the tools necessary for reading a real Latin author and for understanding the historical context under a single cover. The edition succeeds at this, but putting all those tools to use over the course of a semester will require difficult choices, each of which shortens the amount of time a class will be able to devote to reading Petronius’ Latin.

To aid intermediate-level students in the process of reading the Satyrica, Severy-Hoven provides historical, cultural, and literary orientation through a lengthy introduction—longer, in fact, than the selections from Petronius. The first nine chapters of readings involve Trimalchio; the last three (and an appendix of additional material) contain a mix of highlights such as Eumolpus’ tale of the “Widow of Ephesus”; some chapters (1–2, 8–10) include brief discussions of Roman cultural subjects, such as baths and the atrium-house, and scattered throughout are forty illustrations. Commentary on the readings, except for those in the appendix, is mainly glossary with some explanation of grammar and context. A review of basic grammar follows the commentary, the longest section of the text by far, also divided into twelve chapters, with questions keyed to each chapter of readings. The edition ends with a dictionary and bibliography.

In contrast to an older book such as M. G. Balme’s The Millionaire’s Dinner Party: An Adaptation of the Cena Trimalchionis of Petronius (Oxford 1973), which offers much the same structure but clearly emphasizes time spent reading Latin, Severy-Hoven’s new edition is designed “to create a more complete and more authentic textbook” (xiv). In aiming for completeness, however, the introduction and grammatical review have become so long as to obscure Petronius. Balme clearly casts a long shadow over this new edition to the extent that Severy-Hoven’s text is really an expansion of it, and although Balme’s book is more than forty years old, its well-balanced approach withstands the competition.

Making use of Severy-Hoven’s fine but lengthy introduction and grammatical review in an intermediate course poses the greatest challenge. For most of the material introduced, such as the fourteen-page discussion of the Satyrica’s relationship to other literary genres, students will have no point of reference. To be sure, acquainting students with the unfamiliar is the point of an introduction; but how much will be remembered by students who read so many details initially and then leave them behind when they turn to the readings? The few attempts made to include illustrations and brief discussions that echo this material within the chapters are ineffective and also very jarring, most particularly because the quality of the reproductions is so poor. This may be due in part to the alkaline paper used for the edition, but also surely to the low resolution of the original sources. The press could have imagined a better solution in today’s multimedia world.

The “Guided Review” of grammar is much better integrated with the selections from Petronius, but at nearly eighty pages it effectively forms a textbook within the textbook. Students can only be led through this full and insightful review at the expense of acquiring comfort and speed in reading. Even so, they would be served as well or better by using a beginning textbook that they already own or by purchasing a stand-alone...

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