Page "Satyricon" Paragraph 28

A number of fragments of Petronius ' work are preserved in other authors.

Servius cites Petronius as his source for a custom at Massilia of allowing a poor man, during times of plague, to volunteer to serve as a scapegoat, receiving support for a year at public expense and then being expelled.

Sidonius Apollinaris refers to " Arbiter ", by which he apparently means Petronius ' narrator Encolpius, as a worshipper of the " sacred stake " of Priapus in the gardens of Massilia.

It has been proposed that Encolpius ' wanderings in the Satyricon began after he offered himself as the scapegoat and was ritually expelled.

Other fragments may relate to a trial scene.