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Literature Top 10 Books
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You may have seen or at least heard of the famous movie by Federico Fellini that was based on the fragments that have survived of this work. It's a great tragedy that all of the complete texts of this book have been lost and destroyed through the centuries, because the tiny bits we have left are as amusing and interesting as any modern text. There's more than a little Oscar Wilde in Petronius, and anyone who wants to get a very natural first-hand look into the lives of the rich and famous in the days of Roman decadence will enjoy this book. I'm interested in the ancient Roman attitudes towards sex, because pre-Christian attitudes about sex can show us which of our morals are informed by religion and which are informed by human nature, a difficult distinction to make 2000 years after the fact. |