Word: ascyltus
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...against "modern" education, sounding a little like Bernard Shaw denouncing formal schooling. But Encolpius tires of this theme and soon becomes involved with his two comrades-in-arms in a sale of stolen goods. Later, the two older men quarrel, and Encolpius suggests they divide their belongings and separate. Ascyltus agrees-and draws his sword, threatening to divide the boy Giton. The most sustained satire of the volume describes a lavish dinner at the mansion of Trimalchio, wealthy and flatulent onetime slave. He presents each outrageous new dish-a roast sow. for instance, with a bellyful of live thrushes-displaying...
Petronius' story follows the happenstance progress of three impure pilgrims: the freeloader Encolpius (whose name means, roughly, "the crotch''); the effeminate boy Giton. who is Encolpius' "brother" ("frater" to Romans had a double meaning of homosexuality); and Ascyltus. who lusts after Giton. With a straight face. Petronius defended the propriety of his romance...