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A Note on Trimalchio’s Zodiac Dish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Barry Baldwin
Barry Baldwin
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
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Extract

In their recent article on this subject, Rose and Sullivan suggest that we read: super scorpionem locustam, super sagittarium oculatam, super capricornum caprum et cornutam, etc. This is attractive and can, I suggest, be supported by a further argument.

I propose that locustam be regarded as a pun on the celebrated lady poisoner of the period, Locusta. According to Tacitus, she was already infamous by the year 54, and continued to be a valuable tool of Nero throughout his reign. Petronius is fond of puns, and the passage under discussion contains more than one. And the suggested play on locusta may be confirmed by Trimalchio himself, a little later on, in his lecturette on astrology: in scorpione venenarii et percussores.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , December 1970 , pp. 364
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

page 364 note 1 Rose, K. F. C. and Sullivan, J. P., ‘Trimalchio’s Zodiac Dish’, CQ N.s. xviii (1968), 180–4Google Scholar.

page 364 note 2 Her name also appears as Lucusta, but this does not seem fatal to my suggestion.

page 364 note 3 Ann. 12. 66: nuper veneficii damnata et diu inter instrumenta regni habita. He repeats this information in Ann. 13. 15.

page 364 note 4 Suetonius, , Nero 33, 47Google Scholar; Dio, 60. 34; 64. 3. Locusta was finally executed by Galba.

page 364 note 5 See Sullivan, J. P., The ‘Satyricon’ of Petronius (Indiana University Press, 1968), 225–8Google Scholar.

page 364 note 6 39. 4 ff.

page 364 note 7 35 7.