Saturnalia
Also known as: Saturnaliorum Libri Septem, Seven Books of the Saturnalia
A learned late-antique dialogue set during the Saturnalia festival, in which Roman aristocrats debate religion, myth, language, customs, and—above all—Virgil’s encyclopedic learning. Drawing on earlier authorities, Macrobius preserves vast fragments of Roman lore.
Description
Macrobius frames his work as a convivial symposium across the seven days of the Saturnalia, convening leading fourth-century Roman intellectuals. Their conversations range from the origins and rituals of the festival to antiquarian explanations of the gods, cosmology, etymology, and calendar lore. The central books mount an extended defense of Virgil as master of philosophy, science, and religion, compiling parallels and testimonia from Greek and Roman authors. While not a mythic narrative, the dialogue catalogues and allegorizes many myths—Saturn’s age, Janus’s duality, the supremacy of Sol, and syncretisms linking Roman, Greek, and Egyptian deities—making the work a key conduit for earlier scholarship lost elsewhere.
Historiography
The Saturnalia survives in numerous medieval manuscripts and was widely excerpted, especially for its Virgilian criticism and antiquarian lore. Macrobius draws heavily on Varro, Nigidius Figulus, Cicero, and Greek Platonists (often via intermediate compilations). Renaissance humanists mined the text for Roman religion and language; modern editors track layered sources and late antique reinterpretations of earlier material.
Date Notes
A late antique antiquarian dialogue likely composed in the early fifth century; set during the Saturnalia festival but written decades later
Major Characters
- Macrobius
- Praetextatus
- Symmachus
- Eusebius
- Servius
Myths
- Origins of Saturnalia
- Solar Theology of the Sun’s Rebirth
- Allegories of the Gods
Facts
- Structured as seven books of conversations set over the Saturnalia festival
- Preserves extensive fragments of earlier Roman scholarship now lost
- Devotes multiple books to defending Virgil’s encyclopedic learning
- Offers allegorical interpretations of Roman deities, especially Sol
- Cites Varro, Cicero, and Platonic writers among principal sources
- Key witness to late antique Roman religion and elite intellectual culture
- Influenced Renaissance antiquarianism and humanist philology
- Transmits details on Roman calendar, ritual customs, and etymologies
- Often excerpted in medieval florilegia for moral and scholarly use
- Companion work is Macrobius’s commentary on the Dream of Scipio