The Satyricon

After some time spent with Quartilla, Encolpius and Ascyltus are relieved to receive an invitation to have dinner at the home of a man named Trimalchio. In preparation for the dinner, Encolpius and Ascyltus go to the baths, and they encounter Trimalchio there. Trimalchio is very wealthy, flamboyantly dressed, and has slaves to wait on his every need. From the baths, Encolpius, Ascyltus, Giton, and Agamemnon (the teacher from the school of rhetoric) proceed to Trimalchio’s mansion. Encolpius is immediately struck by the grandeur and wealth all around him. He observes, for example, “a janitor in a green outfit hitched up with a cherry-colored belt; he was shelling peas in a silver dish. Over the threshold hung a golden cage, in which a dappled magpie greeted the incomers” (21).

Once all the guests are settled, they begin to be served lavish dishes of food, often with an element of novelty or surprise to them, such as mock chicken eggs made of dough and concealing a tasty bite inside of them. Trimalchio has many servants to wait on him, and occasionally makes jokes or attempts at witty commentary.