The core of our work in this class will be to read in Latin and interpret sections of Petronius’ partially-preserved 1st-century CE novel the Satyricon. In addition, we will read and discuss 1). the other preserved sections of the novel in English translation 2). related ancient texts by Horace, Seneca, Tacitus, Apuleius, and others, also in English translation and 3). pieces of modern scholarship that supply useful background for or advance interpretations of the Satyricon. Topics that will preoccupy us include but are not limited to: social distinction and cultural capital; Roman ideologies and discourse about slaves, freed people, and the freeborn; food, cuisine, and dining; identity and transformation; social status and language; death; time; sex and sexuality; rhetoric and education; genre; narrative; and readership.