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.bp
On the question of refined \f8diction\f6 Eumolpus seems to fare less well.
Baldwin argues that, albeit by necessity,
``Petronius has simply transferred to the poem his prose vocabulary,
shorn of it exuberances, and augmented by a few new terms.''\|\c
.f "Baldwin (1911) 47."
But this is not to say that the diction of the poem is unrefined;
merely that it is not significantly different from that of the surrounding prose
(which can itself be quite high-register):
.bl

This double use of his vocabulary is made possible,
not only by the comparatively prosaic tone of the verse,
but also by the tendency of the characters in his romance
to indulge in melodramatic rant and describe their sordid doings
in language filched from epic, tragedy, and oratory.\c
.f "Baldwin (1911) 49."

.ck
Sullivan declares, that ``Petronius' vocabulary, although Vergilian,
is jejune and imitative.''\|\c
.f "Sullivan (1968) 182."
In fact this actually confirms Eumolpus' conservative precept:
he does not say that a poet's vocabulary should be innovative;
only that it should not be that of everyday speech.
Baldwin's point is that the ``everyday speech''
of the characters in the \f7Satyricon\f6 is already quite elevated,
so that the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 does little to distinguish itself
from the rest of the work in its diction.
This does not mean that Eumolpus has failed to meet his guideline.
.p
Baldwin does adduce a few examples of colloquialisms,
namely forms of \f7accersere\f6 (vv. 117, 158; also common in Lucan)
and the ``plebeian circumlocution'' of \f7esse nocens coepi\f6 (v. 164),
as well as the following examples of legal language,
which the argument of section 118.2 would also seem to forbid:\c
.f "Baldwin (1911) 43."
.bl

•\ \f7sine\ uindica\ praeda\f6, (v.\ 50)\p
.br
•\ \f7nullum\ sine\ pignore\ corpus\f6, (v.\ 53)\p
.br
•\ \f7causam\ dicite\f6,\ and (v.\ 169)\p
.br
•\ \f7causa\ peracta\ est\f6. (v.\ 175)\p

.ck
.bp
Offsetting these ``failures'' are many poetic usages,
of which Baldwin gives eleven examples,\c
.f "Baldwin (1911) 43–4."
while several others have already been discussed
in the first chapter of the present study.
On balance, then, though it may not differentiate itself
from the diction of the rest of the \f7Satyricon\f6,
the language of the \f7Bellum Ciuile\f6 is nevertheless quite fitting for poetry.
Of course, it may not be the diction of \f7epic\f6 poetry,
but given that the first sixty lines of the poem seem to have more in common
with the genre of satire than that of epic (as discussed above),
this is perhaps not surprising.