''Saturnalia'' (, "Seven Books of the

Saturnalia Saturnalia is an Roman festivals, ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the List of Roman deities, god Saturn (mythology), Saturn, held on 17 December in the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities until 19 December. By t ...

") is a work written after 431 CE by the Roman provincial Macrobius Theodosius. The ''Saturnalia'' consists of an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus during the holiday of the

. It contains a great variety of curious historical, mythological, critical,

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

and grammatical discussions.

Background

''Saturnalia'' is a late example of the Symposium genre pioneered by

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

. Görgemanns, Herwig (Heidelberg). "Symposium literature". ''Brill's New Pauly Online''. Brill, 2006. It is written as a series of scholarly dialogues at fictional banquets held over the eve of

and three days of the

holiday A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. ''Public holidays'' are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often ...

, December 16–19. In each book, one of the characters does the bulk of the speaking on the topic.

Principal Characters

Macrobius threw together characters from different times and places in an

anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common typ ...

gathering. Some are historical figures, primarily from the 4th century in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. Others are fictional or very loosely associated with obscure figures.Macrobius. ''Saturnalia, Volume I: Books 1-2''. Edited and translated by Robert A. Kaster. Loeb Classical Library 510. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011. *Praetextatus: Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, a wealthy

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

aristocrat. *Flavianus: Virius Nicomachus Flavianus, vicar of Africa,

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

. *Symmachus:

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus Quintus Aurelius Symmachus Nickname, signo Eusebius (, ; c. 345 – 402) was a Roman statesman, orator, and intellectual. He held the offices of governor of proconsular Africa (province), Africa in 373, urban prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and R ...

, orator, author, and politician. *Decius: Caecina Decius Albinus Iunior, prefect of Rome and father of Caecina Decius Aginatius Albinus. * Rufius Albinus: prefect of Rome. *Eustathius: Greek philosopher. *Evangelus: an aristocrat from Tibur. *Avienus: a young aristocrat. *Eusebius: a Greek teacher of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

. * Servius: a grammarian. *Dysarius: a physician. *

Horus Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...

: a former boxer and Cynic philosopher.

The first book is devoted to an inquiry as to the origin of the Saturnalia and the festivals of Janus, which leads to a history and discussion of the Roman calendar, and to an attempt to derive all forms of worship from that of the Sun.Whittaker, Thomas.
Macrobius, or, Philosophy, science and letters in the year 400
'.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1923. 17. The second book begins with a collection of ''bons mots'', to which all present make their contributions, many of them being ascribed to Cicero and

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

; a discussion of various pleasures, especially of the senses, then seems to have taken place, but almost the whole of this is lost. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth books are devoted to Virgil, dwelling respectively on his learning in religious matters, his rhetorical skill, his debt to

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

(with a comparison of the art of the two) and to other Greek writers, and the nature and extent of his borrowings from the earlier

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

poets. The latter part of the third book is taken up with a dissertation upon luxury and the sumptuary laws intended to check it, which is probably a dislocated portion of the second book. The seventh book consists largely of the discussion of various physiological questions. The primary value of the work lies in the facts and opinions quoted from earlier writers. The form of the ''Saturnalia'' is copied from

's ''Symposium'' and Gellius's ''Noctes atticae''; the chief authorities (whose names, however, are not quoted) are Gellius, Seneca the philosopher,

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

(''Quaestiones conviviales''),

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

and the commentaries of Servius and others on Virgil.

Editions and translations

*Macrobius, Ambrosius Aurelius Theodosius.
Seven Books of the Saturnalia
'. ublisher Not Identified, 1400–1499 Pdf.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. :Illuminated codex from the Plutei Collection of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence. *Macrobius. ''The Saturnalia''. Translated by Percival Vaughan Davies.

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

, 1969.

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

(LCL) *Macrobius. ''Saturnalia, Volume I: Books 1-2''. Edited and translated by Robert A. Kaster. LCL 510. Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

(HUP), 2011. *---. ''Saturnalia, Volume II: Books 3-5''. Edited and translated by R.A. Kaster. LCL 511. HUP, 2011. *---. ''Saturnalia, Volume III: Books 6-7''. Edited and translated by R.A. Kaster. LCL 512. HUP, 2011. :Includes Index of Names, Topics, and Index Locorum.

References

External links

Latin text on LacusCurtius

Loeb Classical Library edition
{{Authority control 5th-century books in Latin Gallo-Roman religion Phoenicia in ancient sources Symposium

Background

Principal Characters

Contents

Editions and translations

References

External links