Saturnalia

In Practice

It opened with a public sacrifice at Saturn's temple in the Forum and a banquet. Then came days of feasting, gifts, gambling and licensed freedom for slaves. Livy dates its founding to the early Republic (Ab Urbe Condita 2.21), and Catullus called it the best of days (Carmina 14). The festival's origin was disputed in antiquity. Livy says a temple was dedicated to Saturn and the Saturnalia instituted when Aulus Sempronius and Marcus Minucius were consuls, conventionally dated 497 BCE (Ab Urbe Condita 2.21). Macrobius, writing his Saturnalia in the early fifth century CE, collects older stories that make it far older than Rome. In one, Janus founded an altar and rites called Saturnalia after Saturn vanished from Latium (Saturnalia 1.7.24). In another, companions left behind by Hercules instituted it on the Saturnian hill (1.7.27). A third credits wandering Pelasgians obeying an oracle of Dodona (1.7.28-31). The poet Accius, quoted by Macrobius, gives a Greek origin instead. The Athenians, he says, keep a feast of Cronus called the Cronia, where masters feast with their slaves, and Rome took the custom from them (1.7.36). The public rite is best described by Livy. During the war with Hannibal, he says, a sacrifice was made at Saturn's temple in December. A sacred couch was spread by senators, a public banquet was held, and the cry of "Saturnalia" went through the city for a day and a night. The people were ordered to keep that day as a holiday forever (Ab Urbe Condita 22.1.19-20). Macrobius adds that sacrifice at Saturn's altar was made by Greek rite, with the head uncovered (1.8.2). He also reports that the cult statue's feet were bound in wool all year and loosed for the festival (1.8.5). Private life changed more than public ritual. Martial describes knights and senators in light dinner clothes, and a slave rattling the dice box without fear of the aedile (Epigrams 14.1). Rome itself, he says, wears the freedman's cap (Epigrams 11.6). Seneca complains that the whole city sweats with preparations in December. Romans have changed their dress for pleasure, and he calls the festive crowd "liberty-capped" (Epistles 18.1-3). Friends exchanged presents: Catullus jokes that his friend Calvus sent him a book of dreadful poets on the Saturnalia (Carmina 14). Macrobius says wax candles were a traditional gift, and that a tribune named Publicius limited gifts from clients to the rich to candles alone (1.7.32-33). Clay figurines, the Sigillaria, were given to small children (1.11.1). The festival's best-known feature was the licence given to slaves. Macrobius ties it to Saturn's reign, remembered as a Golden Age, when no one was yet divided into slave and free (1.7.26). In Macrobius's own day, religious households first served their slaves a dinner laid as if for the master (1.24.22-23). Lucian's dialogue Saturnalia, written in Greek, has Cronus describe his week of rule: drinking, dice, mock kings chosen by dice and feasts for slaves. Cassius Dio explains the cry "Io Saturnalia" by noting that slaves wore their masters' clothes at the feast (Roman History 60.19.3). Pliny the Younger shows the other side: he retreated to a quiet suite of his villa while the rest of the house rang with festival shouting (Letters 2.17.24). Dionysius of Halicarnassus reports a neighbouring rite. A few days after the Saturnalia the Romans kept the Compitalia, and slaves served the sacrifices at neighbourhood chapels to heroes (Roman Antiquities 4.14.3-4). Romans identified Saturn with the Greek Kronos, and several ancient writers explain the Saturnalia through that equation. Whether the festival really began as a Greek import or as an Italian harvest feast is a modern question the sources cannot settle. Macrobius himself preserves both answers side by side. He also counts the Lupercalia, with the Agonalia and Carmentalia, among the fixed public holidays (Saturnalia 1.16.5-6).

Where Accounts Differ

• how long the Saturnalia lasted
• Greek Cronia or Italian festival
• who founded the Saturnalia
• how far slaves and masters traded places
• banned or dropped from the legal calendar

• Length: Macrobius says the Saturnalia was originally one day, the fourteenth before the Kalends of January, and was spread over several days after Julius Caesar lengthened December (Saturnalia 1.10.2). He also quotes Novius and Mummius for an old seven-day festival (1.10.3), reports Mallius's view that it was three days from the start (1.10.4), and credits Augustus with fixing three days of legal holiday (1.10.4, 1.10.23). The Sigillaria extended the celebrations to seven days (1.10.24). Suetonius has Caligula add a fifth day (Caligula 17.2), and Cassius Dio says Claudius restored it after it lapsed (Roman History 60.25.8). Lucian's Cronus speaks of a week.
• Origin: Livy dates the institution of the Saturnalia to the dedication of Saturn's temple under the consuls Sempronius and Minucius (Ab Urbe Condita 2.21). Macrobius reports a founding by Tullus Hostilius after his triumphs, and Varro's account crediting King Tarquinius and the dictator Titus Larcius (Saturnalia 1.8.1). Macrobius also preserves stories that make the festival older than Rome: Janus (1.7.24), Hercules's companions (1.7.27) and the Pelasgians (1.7.28-31). Accius derives it from the Athenian Cronia (1.7.36). Whether the festival was Greek or native Italian in origin is not settled by the ancient sources.
• Role reversal: the sources differ on how far it went. Macrobius's speaker says slaves were given complete licence (Saturnalia 1.7.26), and Cassius Dio says slaves wore their masters' clothes (Roman History 60.19.3). Accius and Philochorus speak of masters eating with slaves (1.7.36, 1.10.22). In Macrobius's own household scene, slaves are served first and the masters dine afterward (1.24.22-23). Another speaker in the same dialogue, Evangelus, calls the idea of slaves eating with their masters a disgrace and doubts it has any religious basis (1.11.1). Lucian presents mock kings and forfeits as the festival's typical games.
• End of the festival: no ancient source cited here records a formal ban. The law of 389 CE listing court holidays omits the Saturnalia (Theodosian Code 2.8.19), which ended its status as a legal holiday without forbidding it. The link between the Saturnalia and Christmas is a modern argument, not an ancient statement.
• Livy's account of the day-and-night celebration (Ab Urbe Condita 22.1.19-20) is checked against the Latin text, because the registered English edition does not include Book 22. Macrobius, Seneca, Martial, Pliny, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, Lucian and the Theodosian Code are cited in prose only, as they are not in the site's citation registry.

Where This Appears

• Character Saturn
• Character Kronos
• Term Golden Age
• Character Jupiter
• Mythology Roman Mythology
• Character Ops
• Term Lares and Penates
• Comparison Kronos vs. Saturn

Referenced By

• Term Lupercalia
• Term Vestal Virgins

Sources