Satyricon
Date: 1934
Region: Europe
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Literature
Artist: Gaius Pretonius (d.c. 66 C.E.)
Confronting Bodies: City of Westminster in London
Dates of Action: 1934
Location: London, England
Description of Artwork: Satyricon: Comic, picaresque romance that relates the wanderings and escapades of a disreputable trio of adventurers. Surviving portions probably represent about one tenth of the complete work. The longest and best episode of the Satyricon is the one so-called Cena Trimalchionis, a description of a dinner party given by Trimalchionis that is distinguished by two features: extraordinary realism and the figure of Trimalchionis.
The Incident: 1934 England-London: This comic satire on Roman life in the time of Nero, under whom Petronius served as a consul and "arbiter" of the public entertainment, survives as a fragment. According to one authority (Donald Thomas, A Long Time Burning), the first English translation to get in trouble was a modern one.
Results of Incident: 1934 England-London: The book was ordered destroyed by the police court of the City of Westminster.
Source: Banned Books 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D., by Anne Lyon Haight, and Chandler B. Grannis, R.R. Bowker Co, 1978.