Peter Habermehl, Petronius, Satyrica 79-141. Ein philologisch-literarischer Kommentar. Bd. 2: Sat. 111-118, Texte und Kommentare 27.2 (Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter, 2020), Exemplaria Classica 25 (2021), pp. 391-398 (original) (raw)

Peter Habermehl, Petronius, Satyrica 79-141. Ein philologisch-literarischer Kommentar. Bd. 2: Sat. 111-118, Texte und Kommentare 27.2 (Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter, 2020), Exemplaria Classica 25 (2021), pp. 391-398

There has been a long interval between the publication of the first and the second volume of the commentary by Peter Habermehl (hereafter PH) on the latter half of Petronius’ novel (i.e. the chapters subsequent to the Cena Trimalchionis). The first volume appeared in 2006 and the author’s original intention was to finalise his project in two instalments only, and to skip chapters 119-24.1 (the Bellum Civile). By now, however, the commentary has grown considerably: the current volume covers no more than eight chapters (instead of twenty-six, if we do not count Eumolpus’ poem), PH has changed his mind about the omission of the Bellum Civile, and it is likely that the commentary as a whole will consist of four volumes totalling at least some 1700 pages. Thus we are dealing here with a huge enterprise which, nowadays, is usually tackled by a team of scholars; PH himself (p. IX) refers to the Groningen Apuleius project (1977-2015, nine volumes). If, on the other hand, we are looking for an individual scholar’s work of comparable size and character, we may recall the commentary on Tacitus’ Annals by Erich Koestermann (1963-1968, four volumes), that on Thucydides by Simon Hornblower (1991-2008, three volumes) or that on Livy’s Books 6-10 by S.P. Oakley (1997-2005, four volumes).