Trimalchio

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Trimalchio

Trimalchio is a character in the Roman

Greek Empire

Greek Empire can refer to the following:...
"novel" The Satyricon
Satyricon

Satyricon is a Latin language work of fiction in a mixture of prose and poetry. It is believed to have been written by Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as a certain Titus Petronius....
by Petronius

Petronius

Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman Empire courtier during the reign Nero. He is speculated to be the author of the Satyricon, a satire believed to have been written during the Neronian age....
. He plays a part only in the section entitled Cena Trimalchionis (The Banquet of Trimalchio). Trimalchio is a freedman

Freedman

Freedman is the term used to describe a former Slavery who has been Manumission or Emancipation. The first means the freeing of an individual by the owner, often through deed or will, and sometimes by legislative petition....
who through hard work and perseverance has attained power and wealth. His full name is Gaius Pompeius Trimalchio Maecenatianus; the references to Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, commonly known as Pompey /'p?mpi/, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a distinguished military and political leader of the late Roman Republic....
and Maecenas in his name serve to enhance his ostentatious character.

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Encyclopedia

Trimalchio is a character in the Roman

Greek Empire

Petronius

Freedman

Pompey

Semitic

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages....
and means "thrice-blessed". His wife's name is Fortunata, a former prostitute. Trimalchio is known for throwing lavish dinner

Dinner

Dinner is the name of the main meal of the day. Depending upon regional locale and tradition, it may be the second or third principle meal of the day....
parties

Party

A party is a gathering of persons who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, and recreation. A party will typically feature eating and Drinking#Alcoholic beverages, and often music and dancing as well....
, where his numerous servants bring course after course of exotic delicacies, such as live bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s sewn up inside a pig

Pig

Pigs, also called hogs or swine, are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the Family Suidae. The name pig, hog, or swine most commonly refers to the Domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the Wild Boar....
and a dish to represent every sign of the zodiac

Zodiac

Zodiac denotes an annual cycle of twelve stations along the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the heavens through the constellations that divide the ecliptic into twelve equal zones of celestial longitude....
. The Satyricon has a lengthy description of Trimalchio's proposed tomb

Tomb

For the New York prison see The Tombs.A tomb is a repository for the remains of the death. The term generally refers to any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes....
, which is incredibly ostentatious and lavish. This tomb was to be designed by a well-known tomb-builder called Habinnas, who was among the revellers present at Trimalchio's feast. He sought to impress his guests - the Roman nouveau riche

Nouveau riche

Nouveau riche , or new money, refers to a person who has acquired considerable wealth within his or her generation. This term is generally to emphasize that the individual was previously part of a lower socioeconomic rank, and that such wealth has provided the means for the acquisition of goods or luxuries that were previously unobt...
, mostly freedmen - with the ubiquitous excesses seen throughout his dwelling. By the end of the banquet, Trimalchio's drunken showiness leads to the entire household acting out his funeral, all for his own amusement and egotism.

In fiction

The original title of F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an United States writer of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself....
's The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a novel by the United States author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published on April 10, 1925, it is set in Long Island's North Shore and New York City during the summer of 1922....
was Trimalchio in West Egg. One of Fitzgerald's complete earlier drafts of the book was published under the name Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby
Trimalchio (novel)

Trimalchio: An Early Version of "The Great Gatsby" is a published complete early draft of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.The original title of The Great Gatsby was "Trimalchio in West Egg." The Great Gatsby contains a reference to Trimalchio in the introduction to Chapter 7:...
. Fitzgerald makes a reference to Trimalchio in the introduction to Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby: It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night-and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over.

Trimalchio is also referred to in the novel Pompeii
Pompeii (novel)

File:Castellum Aquae Pompeii 271.jpgPompeii is a novel by author and journalist Robert Harris published by Random House in 2003. It is a blend of fictional characters with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79 that overwhelmed Pompeii and its surrounding towns....
by Robert Harris
Robert Harris (novelist)

Robert Dennis Harris is a bestseller England novelist. He is a former journalist and BBC television reporter. He specialises in historical thrillers noted for their literary accomplishment....
, where the character Numerius Popidius Ampliatus, also a freed slave who has become wealthy, throws a great dinner party where there is too much for everyone to eat. A guest secretly compares him to Trimalchio, to the great amusement of another.

H.P. Lovecraft's short story 'The Rats in the Walls
The Rats in the Walls

"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft. Written August-September 1923 in literature, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924 in literature....
,' makes reference to Trimalchio, reading, 'There was a vision of a Roman feast like that of Trimalchio, with a horror in a covered platter.'

Trimalchio is mentioned and quoted by Henry Miller
Henry Miller

Henry Valentine Miller was an United States novelist and Painting. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of...
in his book Black Spring. The section entitled "Third of Fourth Day of Spring" is opened up with a quotation reading: "To piss warm and drink cold, as Trimalchio says, because our mother the earth is in the middle..."

Trimalchio's Feast is alluded to in "Toga Party" by John Barth
John Barth

John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodern literature and metafiction quality of his work.John Barth was born in Cambridge, Maryland, and briefly studied "Elementary Theory and Advanced Orchestration" at Juilliard before attending Johns Hopkins University, receiving a B.A....
, which was included in The Best American Short Stories 2007, in reference to Tom and Patsy Hardison's lavish toga party.