Excepit Seleucus fabulae partem (Petron. 42,1-2)

This article argues that the words spoken by the freedman Seleucus in Petron. 42, 2 (cum mulsi pultarium obduxi, frigori laecasin dico) are a parodic allusion to some lines of the Mnesiptolemus, a lost comedy by the Greek poet Epinicus (PCG v, Epinicus, fr. 1 K.-A. = Ath. deipn. x 432b-c). In these lines Epinicus makes King Seleucus (we can only hesitate between Seleucus II Callinicus or Seleucus III Ceraunus) praise the wine mixed with honey and barley-groats as a solution to solar warmth. The article also argues that the source from which Petronius may have known Epinicus's lines is probably the Symmikta of the grammarian Seleucus of Alexandria, nicknamed “Homeric”, a diner and later victim of Tiberius.

Seleucus of Alexandria possibly quoted the Hypomnemata of Hegesander of Delphi, who in turn had cited Epinicus's passage, as we know from Ath. deipn. x 432b-d. From Seleucus's Symmikta, which could be the source of the section of Athenaeus's Learned Banqueters on how the ancients mixed their wine (Ath. deipn. x 426b-432d), Petronius may have also known some lines of Alcaeus that echo in the Cena Trimalchionis (Alc. fr. 338, 1 ss. V. ~ Petron. 42, 2; Alc. fr. 346, 1 V. ~ Petron. 41, 10; Alc. fr. 347, 1 V. ~ Petron. 34, 7; 73, 6). Furthermore, the article offers some philological observations on the text of Ath. deipn. x 432b-c (= PCG v, Epinicus, fr. 1 K.-A.). [Publisher's text]