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Gareth Schmeling, with the collaboration of Aldo Setaioli. A Commentary on the Satyrica of Petronius. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 2011. Pp. xlix, 681. $185.00. ISBN 978-0-19-956771-3.
Not long before Schmeling published his commentary on Petronius-twenty years in the making, it covers the entire text (with the exception of the fragments not included in LcpOH)-three similar works, each concentrating on specific sec- tions and together offering detailed annotations on chapters 1-15 and 79-115, became available in print: Breitenstein (Berlin 2009), Habermehl (Berlin 2006) and Vannini (Berlin 2010: reviewed in CW 105 [2012] 278-79). Given their existence, one obvious choice would have been to focus more particularly on the sections not discussed there. A commentary in one volume on the whole text, however, does need to follow some kind of blueprint, offering information on as wide a range of aspects as possible within a relatively small number of pages and, consequently, devoting an equal amount of attention to each chap- ter of the Satyrica. Certain thematic priorities are nevertheless also essential. Schmeling, who is currently assembling an OCT...