previous next

SATURNA´LIA

SATURNA´LIA the festival of Saturnus, to whom the inhabitants of Latium attributed the introduction of agriculture and the arts of civilised life. Falling towards the end of December, at the season when the agricultural labours of the year were fully completed, it was celebrated in ancient times by the rustic population as a sort of joyous harvest-home, and in every age was viewed by all classes of the community [p. 2.600]as a period of absolute relaxation and unrestrained merriment. During its continuance no public business could be transacted, the law courts were closed, the schools kept holiday, to commence a war was impious, to punish a malefactor involved pollution. (Macr. 1.10, 16; Martial, 1.86; Suet. Aug. 32; Plin. Ep. 8.7.) Special indulgences were granted to the slaves of each domestic establishment; they were relieved from all ordinary toils, were permitted to wear the pilleus the badge of freedom, were granted full freedom of speech, partook of a banquet attired in the clothes of their masters, and were waited upon by them at table. (Macr. 1.7; D. C. 60.19; Just. 43.1, 3; Hor. Sat. 2.7, 5; Martial, 11.6, 14.1; Ath. 14.44.)

The public festival began with a sacrificium publicum in front of the temple of Saturn in the Forum (Dionys. A. R. 6.1), and then followed the convivium publicum, at which senators and knights wore the dinner dress [SYNTHESIS]. In private the day began with the sacrifice of a young pig (Mart. 14.70; Hor. Od. 3.17, 14); all ranks devoted themselves to feasting and mirth, presents were interchanged among friends, and crowds thronged the streets, shouting Io Saturnalia (this was termed clamare Saturnalia). (Catull. 14; Senec. Ep. 18; Suet. Aug. 75; Martial, 5.18, 19, 7.53, 14.1; Plin. Ep. 4.9; Macr. 1.8, 10; Serv. ad Verg. A. 3.407

Many of the peculiar customs exhibited a remarkable resemblance to the sports of our own Christmas and of the Italian Carnival. Thus on the Saturnalia public gambling was allowed by the aediles (Martial, 5.84, 14.1, 11.6), just as in the days of our ancestors the most rigid were wont to countenance card-playing on Christmas-eve; the wearing of the synthesis and of the pilleus (Martial, 14.141, 6.24, 14.1, 11.6; Senec. Ep. 18) may find their counterpart in the dominoes, the peaked caps, and other disguises worn by masques and mummers; the cerei were probably employed as the moccoli now are on the last night of the Carnival; and lastly, one of the amusements in private society was the election of a mock king (Tac. Ann. 13.15; Arrian, Diss. Epictet. 1.25; Lucian, Saturn. 4), which at once calls to recollection the characteristic ceremony of Twelfth-night.

Saturnus being an ancient national god of Latium, the institution of the Saturnalia is lost in the most remote antiquity. In one legend it was ascribed to Janus, who, after the sudden disappearance of his guest and benefactor from the abodes of men, reared an altar to him, as a deity, in the forum, and ordained annual sacrifices; in another, as related by Varro, it was attributed to the wandering Pelasgi, upon their first settlement in Italy, and Hercules, on his return from Spain, was said to have reformed the worship and abolished the practice of immolating human victims; while a third tradition represented certain followers of the last-named hero, whom he had left behind on his return to Greece, as the authors of the Saturnalia (Macr. 1.7). Records approaching more nearly to history referred the erection of temples and altars, and the first celebration of the festival, to epochs comparatively recent, to the reign of Tatius (Dionys. A. R. 2.50), of Tullus Hostilius (Dionys. A. R. 3.32; Macr. 1.8), of Tarquinius Superbus (Dionys. A. R. 6.1; Macrob. l.c.), to the consulship of A. Sempronius and M. Minucius, B.C. 497, or to that of T. Larcius in the preceding year (Dionys. A. R. 6.1; Liv. 2.21). These conflicting statements may be easily reconciled by supposing that the appointed ceremonies were in these rude ages neglected from time to time, or corrupted, and again at different periods revived, purified, extended, and performed with fresh splendour and greater regularity. (Comp. Jordan, Topog. 1.360.) The festival was, no doubt, an old Italian rite of prehistoric date, but the adoption of the ritus graecus in its ceremonies, as shown by the uncovered head [SACRIFICIUM p. 586] and the lectisternium, was due to the order from the Sibylline books in the year 217 B.C. (Liv. 22.1, 19). It is suggested by Marquardt that the feasting of slaves, which the Romans took to be a tradition from the golden age when all were equal, may have really originated with the lectisternium in that year; since such general feasting of all ranks was part of the lectisternia (Macrob. 1.6, 13; LECTISTERNIUM).

During the Republic, although the whole month of December was considered as dedicated to Saturn (Macrob. 1.7), only one day, the XIV. Kal. Jan., was set apart for the sacred rites of the divinity: when the month was lengthened by the addition of two days upon the adoption of the Julian Calendar, the Saturnalia fell on the XVI. Kal. Jan., which gave rise to confusion and mistakes among the more ignorant portion of the people. To obviate this inconvenience, and allay all religious scruples, Augustus enacted that three whole days, the 17th, 18th, and 19th of December, should in all time coming be hallowed, thus embracing both the old and new style (Macrob. 1.10). A fourth day was added, we know not when or by whom, and a fifth, with the title Juvenalis, by Caligula (D. C. 59.6; Suet. Cal. 17); an arrangement which, after it had fallen into disuse for some years, was restored and confirmed by Claudius (D. C. 60.2).

But although, strictly speaking, one day only, during the Republic, was consecrated to religious observances, the festivities were spread over a much longer space. Thus, while Livy speaks of the first day of the Saturnalia (Saturnalibus primis, Liv. 30.36), Cicero mentions the second and third (secundis Saturnalibus, ad Att. 15.32; Saturnalibus tertiis, ad Att. 5.20); and it would seem that the merry-making lasted during seven days, for Novius, the writer of Atellanae, employed the expression septem Saturnalia, a phrase copied in later times by Memmius (Macrob. 1.10), and even Martial speaks of Saturni septem dies (14.72), although in many other passages he alludes to the five days observed in accordance with the edicts of Caligula and Claudius (2.89; 14.79, 141).

Among the presents of all kinds which were made at this season (Suet. Aug. 75; Plin. Ep. 4.9, 7; Lucian, Cronosol. 14-16; Mart. 4.46, 7.53, and all book xiv.), we must notice especially the cerei and the sigillaria. The cerei were wax tapers (funiculi or funales cerei) and were the most ordinary gift (Macrob. 1.7, 33; Varro, L. L. 5.64; Mart. 5.18), which [p. 2.601]may possibly, as some think, have a symbolical reference to the festival of waning light in the season of bruma; it may be noticed also that candles were the light of primitive times before oil lamps were known (Varro, L. L. 5.119), and so may have belonged to a primitive festival. The sigillaria or sigilla, which were especially characteristic of the Saturnalia (Sen. Ep. 12.3; Suet. Cl. 5; Macrob. 1.11, 49; Spartian. Carac. 1, Hadr. 17; Mart. 14.182), were small figures of terra-cotta and possibly sometimes of dough baked hard (Lobeck, Aglaoph. 1079). Some regarded them as relics of a human sacrifice to Saturn (Macrob. 1.11, 48; comp. OSCILLA). Hence the name of the street Sigillaria (Gel. 5.4), and the sale or “fair” of statuettes which lasted for four days after the 17th of December was called sigillaria; there is no ground for the supposition that certain of the festal days bore that name. (Marquardt, Staatsverw. 3.586 ff.; Preller, Röm. Myth. p. 413.)

[W.R] [G.E.M]

hide References (28 total)
  • Cross-references from this page (28):
    • Homer, Odyssey, 3.14
    • Homer, Odyssey, 3.17
    • Vergil, Aeneid, 3.407
    • Suetonius, Caligula, 17
    • Suetonius, Divus Claudius, 5
    • Tacitus, Annales, 13.15
    • Suetonius, Divus Augustus, 32
    • Suetonius, Divus Augustus, 75
    • Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, 4.7
    • Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, 4.9
    • Pliny the Younger, Epistulae, 8.7
    • Livy, The History of Rome, Book 22, 1
    • Livy, The History of Rome, Book 22, 19
    • Livy, The History of Rome, Book 2, 21
    • Livy, The History of Rome, Book 30, 36
    • Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 5.4
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 11.6
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 14.1
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 14.141
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 14.182
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 14.70
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 1.86
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 4.46
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 5.18
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 5.19
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 5.84
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 6.24
    • Martial, Epigrammata, 7.53
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: