Vinicius’ clumsiness
When Vinicius attacked Petronius, thinking that he took his Lygia, Petronius hit him back saying that a weaver taught him gymnastics and a blacksmith – manners. Of course, Vinicius was taught by the best teachers in Rome. Thus, Petronius wanted to show the man his inadequacy and clumsiness.
Woman’s corruptibility
Once while Petronius was talking with Chrysothemis, she asked him whether he wasn’t at her feet. He answered: “Yes; to put rings on thy toes.” Thus he wanted to emphasize her ‘price’ for him: he wasn’t at her feet because he loved her so much, but because he gave the ‘reward’ for their relations. And, what is more important, she accepted this reward, showing her corruptibility in some way.
Butcher’s stall
When Vinicius had got to know that Lygia disappeared from the custody of his slaves, he crushed the skull of one of them and commanded to kill cruelly others. Watching this scene, Petronius went out of there with Chrysothemis, saying that if she wished to look on raw flesh, he would “give command to open a butcher’s stall on the Carinae”. Thus he mocked in some way at Vinicius’ excessive cruelty, which didn’t have any relation with rationality, as well as his idea about stall.
