Asteroid 3244 Petronius was discovered on September 24, 1960 at Palomar Observatory near Pauma Valley, California by C.J. Van Houten and Ingrid Van Houten-Groeneveld. It has a period of 3 years, 131 days and was named for Gaius Petronius(?-66), also known as Titus Petronius Niger, a Roman writer and courtier of the Emperor Nero who served as his official arbiter of fashion and taste and wrote the comic novel Satyricon. When Nero turned against him, he killed himself after writing a suicide note listing all of Nero's hundreds of sex partners.
Astrologically, Petronius seems to indicate respect or disrespect for others' tastes, concern with fashion, etiquette, or being like everyone else or doing what everyone else does; jumping on the bandwagon; being "normal" or "cool" or "in" or wanting to be; fastidiousness, stylishness, things pertaining to the fashion industry, living to excess, debauchery, outrageousness, the high life.
Judith Martin aka Miss Manners
Rock manager and spouse, Ozzfest creator and sailor-tongued matriarch Sharon Osbourne has Petronius on her natal Venus, semisquare her Mars, square her Juno, sesquiquadrate her Pallas and biquintile her Ceres.
Elton John, a virtual hit-record machine in the Seventies known for his sometimes outlandish fashions, has Petronius in the eighth house, conjunct the Sun, square Juno, trine Jupiter, Saturn and the South Node, sesquiquadrate the East Point, and quincunx the Ascendant.
Liberace had Petronius in the twelfth house conjunct the Moon, quintile Uranus, square Ceres, trine Saturn and the Vertex, sesquiquadrate Mercury and Vesta, and triseptile Jupiter.
Luciano Pavarotti, who is noted for his love of the good things life has to offer, has his Petronius in the third house, conjunct Mercury, semisquare Mars and Neptune, square Pluto, trine Saturn, sesquiquadrate Chiron and opposite Juno.
Britney Spears, a person to reckon with in contemporary pop culture, who pushed the envelope by flaunting her sexuality before her eighteenth birthday, has Petronius in the twelfth house, semisquare Jupiter, nonile Pluto, trine Chiron and opposite Perseverantia.
Coco Chanel had Petronius in the fifth house of creativity, cusping the sixth, conjunct Saturn, Chiron, and Phaethon; decile the Part of Fortune; semisquare Jupiter and Pallas; biseptile Uranus; square the Moon; trine Vesta.
Christian Dior, another top 20th-century French designer, had Petronius semisextile the East Point, trine Saturn, Pluto and Pallas, biquintile Venus and opposite Jupiter.
Nancy Reagan, a woman noted for her often expensive fashion sense, has her Petronius in her tenth house, conjunct Neptune, semisextile Mercury and Pallas, sextile the Ascendant and trine Chiron.
The glyph for Petronius is mine.