SOURCE: Whittaker, Thomas. “The Saturnalia. In Macrobius; or, Philosophy, Science and Letters in the Year 400, pp. 15-56. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1923.

In the following excerpt, Whittaker offers an explication and discussion of the Saturnalia.

In a dedication of the Saturnalia to his son Eustachius, the author states his purpose with a candour that ought to have disarmed fault-finders. The composition is to be a medley taken from writers of all ages, Greek and Latin. The very words of the ancient authors will sometimes be carried over, yet a certain new quality will be given to them because they have been, as it were, digested and assimilated by one mind. Nothing could be more fairly said; and he is equally candid in telling us of the licence he has taken in bringing together the friends who are supposed to meet at the house of Vettius Praetextatus on the occasion...