entertain his Reader with Accidental Descripti|<81>ons: He leads him out of the way; and while he admits him so far into a Country he did not look for, he spends and exhausts the Attention and Impatience he had to arrive at the End he proposed. [p.80] Rome does not play more than a marginal role. Huet mentions "Sybaritian Fables" and the love fiction of Ovid, yet only Petronius wrote something like a "romance" in Latin. Ovid mentions a Roman esteem of romances, Huet's comment: Hence appears the Esteem Romances had in Rome; which is more evident, by the Romance which Petronius (one of their Consuls, and the most polished Man of his Time) composed. He disposed it into the|<93> Form of a Satyr, of the same Kind which Varro invented, intermixing Prose with Verse, the Serious with the Jocose, and stiled it Menippean; because Menippus had before treated of Serious Matters in a Pleasant Style. This Satyr of Petronius fails not to be a True Romance: It contains nothing but diverting and ingenious Fictions, tho' they are sometimes too licentious and immodest. He hides under a Disguise a fine and poignant Raillery, against the Vices of Nero's Court. What remains of it, are some incoherent Fragments, or rather Collections of some industrious Person; so that one can't exactly discern|<94> the Form and Connexion of the whole Piece; tho' it appears to be conducted with Order. And 'tis probable those incoherent Parts, would compose a very Compleat Body, with the Addition of those which are lost. Tho' Petronius seems to be a very great Critic, and of an exquisite Taste in Learning; his Style does not always advance to the Delicacy of his Judgement: Something of Affectation may be observed. In some Places he's too Florid and Adorned; and degenerates from that Natural and Majestic Simplicity, which shined in the Agustan Age. [p.94] The Northern Tradition: Fictions of a Dark Age of Ignorance The ancient authors excelled with satires and texts which are no longer extant—a history which ended in darkness with the invasion of Germanic tribes causing the fall of the Roman empire: Hitherto the Art of Romancing was maintained with some Splendor, but it soon decayed with Learning and the Empire; when the Furious nations of the North disseminated, with their Bodies, the Ignorance and barbarity of their Minds. Romances were hitherto composed for|<101> Delight. Fabulous Histories were now