The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Satyricon, Volume 5 (Crotona Affairs)
by Petronius Arbiter

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Title: The Satyricon, Volume 5 (Crotona Affairs)

Author: Petronius Arbiter

Release Date: May 28, 2004 [EBook #5222]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SATYRICON, VOLUME 5 ***

Produced by David Widger

THE SATYRICON OF
PETRONIUS ARBITER

Complete and unexpurgated translation by W. C. Firebaugh,
in which are incorporated the forgeries of Nodot and Marchena,
and the readings introduced into the text by De Salas.

BRACKET CODE:
(Forgeries of Nodot)
[Forgeries of Marchena]
{Additions of De Salas}
DW

VOLUME 5.--AFFAIRS AT CROTONA

CHAPTER THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH.

For a long time affairs at Crotona ran along in this manner and Eumolpus,
flushed with success so far forgot the former state of his fortunes that
he even bragged to his followers that no one could hold out against any
wish of his, and that any member of his suite who committed a crime
in that city would, through the influence of his friends, get off
unpunished. But, although I daily crammed my bloated carcass to
overflowing with good things, and began more and more to believe that
Fortune had turned away her face from keeping watch upon me, I frequently
meditated, nevertheless, upon my present state and upon its cause.
"Suppose," thought I, "some wily legacy hunter should dispatch an agent
to Africa and catch us in our lie? Or even suppose the hireling servant,
glutted with prosperity, should tip off his cronies or give the whole
scheme away out of spite? There would be nothing for it but flight and,
in a fresh state of destitution, a recalling of poverty which had been
driven off. Gods and goddesses, how ill it fares with those living
outside the law; they are always on the lookout for what is coming to
them!" (Turning these possibilities over in my mind I left the house, in
a state of black melancholy, hoping to revive my spirits in the fresh
air, but scarcely had I set foot u