Abstract
The uneasiness caused by deberent loqui is reflected in the variant readings and the emendations put forward. Is there in fact a personal subject? To understand iuvenes is possible but clumsy, but if the tragic poets themselves are intended, then these great writers are strangely selfish. Petronius surely is talking about the proper language for good oratory (cf. 2. 7), which depends on a healthy literary language in general. This rules outWilamowitz's too particular and Fuchs's uglier supplements: easier than deceret would be deberet, paralleled almost exactly in Petronius’ contemporary, Seneca (de Ira 3. 3. 1). Deberent and deberemus were doubtless due to a desire to provide a personal subject for the misunderstood impersonal verb.
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