Petronius Arbiter

"The most celebrated fable of ancient Rome is the work of Petronius Arbiter, perhaps the most remarkable fiction which has dishonored the literature of any nation."

John Dunlop's History of Fiction

The famous reorganisation quote is of course bogus. Whilst at ATT, Jim Reeds compiled a partial list of suckers who have propagated it, including Baroness Thomas of Walliswood speaking in the House of Lords in 1997. Reeds reports that in the STUMPERS list it was traced as far back as page 162 of Robert Townsend's _Up the_Organization_ (New York: Knopf, 1970).

Reeds also highlights interesting English variants and gives Danish and German versions. Dates vary, though 66 and 210 BC and AD (and close typos) are common. The praenomen of Petronius has been variously reconstructed as Galus/Calus and Gains (although Gaius or Titus are the only real options). His cognomen has been given i.a. as Satyricum and Arbitor.

I did write a lot more to back this up, but unfortunately someone else edited this page whilst I was composing my message and the system discarded my edits. Perhaps I'll write it again some day but right now I'm just too frustrated with this editing system to bother -- Graham Smith gks@acm.org

"Petronius the Arbiter" was the name of the ginger-ale-drinking cat in Heinlein's "Door into Summer"