The Satyricon is a Roman work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius or Petronius Arbiter, as he is more commonly known. The book is an example of Menippean satire, which is very different from the formal verse satire of Juvenal or Horace. It contains a mixture of prose and verse, serious and comic elements and erotic and decadent passages.

"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.