.p
For the characters in the narrative, then, to hear Eumolpus turn the Civil War to verse
is nothing out of the ordinary: it is impossible to keep him from versifying,
so on the road to Croton they must simply suffer his compulsion.
But what is the reader to make of the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6?
How does it fit into the rest of the \f7Satyricon\f6?
Is it really a \f8dead rat inside a python\f6, as Connors suggests?
In the past there had been a tendency to see the poem
as somewhat removable from the surrounding text.
Indeed, there is evidence that it actually was removed:
Sochatoff documents a tradition for the independent circulation of the poem,
and notes one translation of the \f7Satyricon\f6
.ne 12
(Tailhade's) which omits it.\c
.f "Sochatoff (1962) 451–3."
But even when the poem is not physically isolated from its context
there is still an inclination to isolate it critically,
an inclination due to its exceptional length, subject matter, and presentation.
.p
Most of the poems in the \f7Satyricon\f6
are between four and seventeen verses,
or about eight verses on average.\c
.f "Edmunds (2009) 77."
At nearly three hundred verses,
the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 is by far the longest poem in the work as it survives.
The only other poem of significant length,
the \f7Troiae Halosis\f6 (89), is only sixty-five verses.
It is true that much of the \f7Satyricon\f6 is lost
and that there may have been other long poems,
but the trend in the surviving fragments makes this seem unlikely.
Another poem of hundreds of verses would presumably require
another character such as Eumolpus (that is, a poet) to recite it,
and another occasion for a poem of some length.
While it is completely likely, given the tendency of the main characters to wander,
that there would be other long journeys to be whiled away,
it is not clear that Eumolpus would continue to accompany Encolpius,
that if he did he would then have other \f7magna opera\f6 up his sleeve,
or that if he faded out of the story in the same way as Ascyltos
whether another poem-reciter would take his place.
The length of the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 is anomolous,
at least in the extant state of the \f7Satyricon\f6.
.p
Another way in which the poem is unique is in respect of its subect matter.
In general,
``a poem follows from the immediately preceding action, and has a purpose.''\|\c
.f "Edmunds (2009) 82."
The \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 is preceded by shipwreck
and followed by the arrival at Croton;
its purpose is to while away the long journey in between.
But there is nothing to say that a poem on the Civil War is what was required here.
Petronius could have opted to omit recounting the journey at all,
and simply ``cut to'' the Croton episode.
It is difficult to tell from the fragmented text whether Petronius may have used
this technique elsewhere: a sudden ``cut'' would not be at all surprising in the text
as it survives, but the original narrative may have been quite contiguous.
One need not look far for an example of the difficulty—\c
section 115 breaks off with:
.bl

\f7et Licham quidem rogus inimicis collatus manibus adolebat.
Eumolpus autem dum epigramma mortuo facit,
oculos ad arcessen-dos\ sensus\ longius\ mittit…\f6 (115.20)\p
.ck
Section 116 resumes with a brief \f7hoc peracto libenter officio…\f6,
and procedes with the narrative.
It may be that what has fallen out of the lacuna was the epigram itself,
but that is not certain.\c
.f "``Gagliardi suggests that fr. 46 M = \f7AL\f6 692 R be inserted'' here; \
Schmeling (2011) \f7ad loc.\f6"
Petronius could easily have glossed over the content of the poetry and moved on.
In any case, even if the journey to Croton really did need to be
whiled away somehow, why by a poem?
Elsewhere Eumolpus has demonstrated an ability to deliver charming prose tales,
one of which would be just as appropriate here as a poem
(and perhaps better received).\c
.f "Eumolpus tells stories in prose at 85–87, 92.6–11, and 111–112; \
Beck (1979), esp. 245 ff. argues Eumolpus is a better story-teller than poet."
And if a poem really was required here, why a poem on the Civil War?
Nowhere else in the \f7Satyricon\f6, in verse or in prose,
are events of such a political and historical nature addressed.
The only possible contender is the other long poem, the \f7Troiae Halosis\f6,
But while this poem describes an important episode for Augustan Rome,
its subject matter is nevertheless mythical,
and not historical-political in the same way as the Civil War.
More importantly, the subject matter of the \f7Troiae Halosis\f6
is relevant to the rest of the narrative:
though it is probably only one of Eumolpus' set-pieces,
opportunistically deployed in his efforts to impress Encolpius,
the poem does after all describe the same event
depicted in one of the paintings at the \f7pinacotheca\f6.
Eumolpus claims to have noticed Encolpius' interest in a painting of the sack of Troy
(\f7sed uideo te totum in illa haerere tabula quae Troiae halosin ostendit\f6, 89.1),
and while the offering of the poem is more humorous
if Encolpius was not in fact dwelling on this particular painting,
the subject matter of the poem is nonetheless thereby accounted for.
In the case of the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6, the subject matter of the poem,
at least on the face of it, has nothing to do
with the situation the characters are in whatever.
Why a shipwrecked Eumolpus chose to recite this particular poem
during his journey to carry out a confidence trick on the inhabitants of Croton
can only be conjectured.
.p
This has not kept scholars from conjecturing about just that, of course.
A completely out-of-place poem on the Civil War is not ideal
in any explanation of the wider structure of the \f7Satyricon\f6.
Petronius has chosen a form which is prosimetric:
both verse and prose are necessary elements,
and the effectiveness of the work relies on their combination.
Edmunds notes that while prose comes first by weight and in carrying the plot
(``one could delete the poems and there would still be a narrative''),
the poetry must convey something extra, since
``verse can replace prose but not vice versa'';
in fact, one is as important as the other:
``poems and prose stand in a `dialogic' relation.''\|\c
.f "Edmunds (2009) 73."
In an effort to make the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 of a whole
with the rest of the \f7Satyricon\f6,
several scholars have found ways of relating the subject matter of the poem
to elements of its wider context.
.p
In the episodes previous to the poem being recited,
Zeitlin notes two foreshadowings of the point in the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6
where the gods choose sides at the outbreak of Civil War
(\f7omnis regia caeli in partes diducta ruit\f6, vv. 265–6):
one during the fight on board ship
(\f7Tryphaena … nauigii turbam diducit in partes\f6, 108.7)
and one in the farm bailiff's description of Croton
(\f7quoscumque homines in hac urbe uideritis
scitote in duas partes esse divisos\f6, 116.6).\c
.f "Zeitlin (1971a) 67–69."
Zeitlin also sees many echoes of Vergil in the lead-up to the occasion for the poem:
``the shipwreck, the arrival upon an unknown shore,
the identification of the place through converse with a stranger,
the view of a city from a high escarpment, and the subsequent journey to the city
follow closely the pattern of the arrival of Aeneas in Carthage in \f7Aeneid\f6\ 1.''\|\c
.f "Zeitlin (1971a) 68."
Although it is true that such a sequence is just at home in the romantic novel
as it is in epic, Zeitlin relates it to other Vergilian features of Eumolpus' poem
(some of which have been discussed in the second chapter of the present work),
drawing up a neat comparison between Carthage, Croton, and Rome:
the wealthy new city of Carthage in the \f7Aeneid\f6
is contrasted with the dead and wasted city of Croton in the \f7Satyricon\f6,
and the opening description of Rome in the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6
illustrates how the transition is made from one to the other.\c
.f "Zeitlin (1971a) 68–71."
.p
Connors expands on Zeitlin's point regarding the fight on board ship,
noting the similarity in phrasing between Tryphaena's exclamation,
\f7quis furor … pacem conuertit in arma?\f6 (108.14) and Lucan's
\f7quis furor, o ciues, quae tantia licentia ferri?\f6 (Luc. 1.8).
To this she adds that ``scenes on board Lichas' ship exploit conventional figures
of the ship of state and the ship of poetry.''\|\c
.f "Connors (1998) 141–2."
That is, just as Lichas' ship goes down,
so Eumolpus' poem flounders and is unfinished,
and so Rome's ship of state meets with peril during the Civil War.
Rimmel also builds on these themes,
emphasizing the importance of water imagery:
the atmosphere of shipwreck prefigures such phrases
in Eumolpus' literary programme as \f7portum feliciorem\f6 (118.2),
\f7ingenti flumine litterarum inundata\f6 (118.3), and
\f7nisi plenus litteris, sub onere labetur\f6 (118.6).\c
.f "Rimell (2002) 81–83."
.p
As for the relation of the poem to the episodes which follow it,
the emphases on death, the underworld, and civil strife
are again for Zeitlin Vergilian themes, this time from \f7Aeneid\f6 6,
and together with the theme of luxury and wealth
they presage the obsession with death and money in Croton.\c
.f "Zeitlin (1971a) 70–71."
For Rimell, the fact that the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 breaks off
just before the actual fighting begins
casts the arrival at Croton as the beginning of civil war,
especially since Encolpius and Giton have sworn oaths like gladiators (117.5–6).\c
.f "Rimell (2002) 88."
Indeed, the rampant practice of legacy-hunting at Croton is very similar to civil war:
the inhabitants are divided into two factions (\f7aut captantur aut captant\f6, 116.6);
and just as in war brother fights brother, so the ultimate culmination of Eumolpus'
deceit is the contemplation of man eating man (141).\c
.f "Arrowsmith (1966) 316, Zeitlin (1971a) 69–70, Rimell (2002) 86–88."
Such comparisons can even extend beyond the poem's immediate context.
Rimell sees the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6
``as a climactic moment in an all-pervasive strategy of incorporation'':\c
.f "Rimell (2002) 78."
.bl

Indeed, the \f7Satyricon\f6 as a whole tells the story
of a bitter and often aggressive conflict between ``brothers'', \f7fratres\f6,
which is how Encolpius, Ascyltos and Giton refer to each other.
All the central characters in this fiction are (sexually) related and divided.
At 80 Encolpius and Giton split into rival factions and plan also
to split Giton's body in half
(\f7partem meam necesse est uel hoc gladio contemptus abscindam\f6, 80.1).\c
.f "Rimell (2002) 88 n. 24."

.ck
The \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 thus becomes for Rimell
the centre round which the whole \f7Satyricon\f6 turns.
.p
But while these sometimes ingenious explanations
do identify themes which cut across both the poem and its context,
perhaps thereby explaining Eumolpus' choice of subject matter,
they do not address the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6's most truly unique characteristic:
the fact that it is presented, like nowhere else, as a literary artifact in its own right.
Even though it was probably composed beforehand,
the \f7Troiae Halosis\f6 at least pretends to be delivered \f7e tempore\f6.
Similarly, other characters' poetic utterances, such as Trimalchio's,
are presented as having just been composed,
even if the reader suspects they had already been.
Even those poems composed by Encolpius-the-narrator
(presumably after the fact, at the time of narrating)
read as if they were composed on the spot,
inspired by the episode described in the preceding prose.\c
.f "Edmunds (2009) 91–4."
The \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6, though, is too long to be an extemporization,
and, besides, Eumolpus introduces it as something he has been working on
(\f7tamquam si placet hic impetus,
etiam si nondum recepit ultimam manum\f6, 118.6),
perhaps while on board Lichas' ship (115.2–4).
Even if the poem he was working on at sea was not the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6,
just the fact that he is depicted as a poet at work
immediately before the journey to Croton
is enough to strengthen the sense that what Eumolpus offers on that journey
is intended as a real literary specimen.
In this sense the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 is like no other poem in the \f7Satyricon\f6:
it is presented as an attempt at actually producing literature,
as opposed to simply an attempt to impress by appearing literate.
Everywhere else, the transition to verse is presented as a lapse:
Petronius inverts the classical order of discourses
by putting conversational language above the poetic;
slipping into verse represents a sentimental character flaw.\c
.f "Jensson (2004) 54–5."
But the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 is no such ``slip'':
it is a conscious effort at composition.
It is perhaps this quality that allows the poem to take
the seemingly incongruous subject of the Civil War.
Really, the poem employed to pass the time on the road to Croton
could have taken any subject.
So far, Eumolpus has been forced to restrict his versifying
to what was appropriate to the occasion:
hence the \f7Troiae Halosis\f6, the musings on hair (109.9–10),
and the epitaph of Lichas (115.20).
On the road to Croton, though, the poet is free to indulge his creative spirit
and is not bound by the context of his surroundings.
A poem on the Civil War, then, is Eumolpus' choice,
and it can therefore tell the reader much about his values as a poet.