that he forgot. "Forgot!" cried Trimalchio, "why, he talks as if it were
only a pinch of pepper omitted. Strip him." In a moment the cook was
stripped to be flogged. All interceded for him, but Petronius felt
somewhat indignant at such an oversight, and said he must be a careless
rascal to forget to disembowel a hog. Trimalchio with a pleasant look
said, "Come, you with the short memory, see if you can bowel him before
us." The cook slashed with his knife, and out tumbled a load of puddings
and sausages. All the servants raised a shout, and the cook was
presented with a cup of wine, and a silver crown.

Petronius shared the fate of Seneca. He was suspected of conspiring
against the Emperor, and his life being demanded, he preferred to suffer
by his own hand rather than by that of the executioner. He caused his
veins to be opened, but strangely whimsical to the last, and wishing to
die slowly, he had them closed at intervals. In his dying state he was
daily carried about the streets of Cumæ, and received his friends, made
love verses and humorous epigrams, and endeavoured to withdraw his
thoughts from the sad reality by indulging in all kinds of amusing
caprices. At length he expired--another distinguished victim of Nero's
cruelty.

Juvenal, who wrote under Domitian, a little later than Persius, equalled
him in severity--due either to his natural disposition or to the
spectacle presented by the ever increasing demoralization of Rome. Like
Persius, he makes use of much metaphor and involution in his
works--showing the literary taste and intellectual acumen of a settled
state of society, but an early age is impressed upon his pages in the
indelicacy with which he is frequently chargeable. His depiction of
guilt was appreciated at that day, but under the Christian dispensation
vice is thought too sinful, and in a highly civilised state too