United States or Nauru ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But there are no proofs of a relation between the Satura and the Saturnalia, and it may be presumed that the immediate association of the -versus saturnius- with the god Saturn, and the lengthening of the first syllable in connection with that view, belong only to later times. I. XII. Foreign Worships I. XIV. Introduction of Hellenic Alphabets into Italy
For whereas the stile of the antient Roman Common-wealth, was, The Senate, and People of Rome; neither Senate, nor People pretended to the whole Power; which first caused the seditions, of Tiberius Gracchus, Caius Gracchus, Lucius Saturnius, and others; and afterwards the warres between the Senate and the People, under Marius and Sylla; and again under Pompey and Caesar, to the Extinction of their Democraty, and the setting up of Monarchy.
Pliny speaks of Cornelia, of the family of Serpios, who bore a son at sixty, who was named Volusius Saturnius; and Marsa, a physician of Venice, was deceived in a pregnancy in a woman of sixty, his diagnosis being "dropsy." Tarenta records the history of the case of a woman who menstruated and bore children when past the age of sixty.
Yes, thou art the child Of great Saturnius ZEUS. Ha! thou thoughtless one! Shall Zeus, to please a woman's stubbornness, Bid planets whirl, and bid the suns stand still? Zeus will do so! oft has a god's descendant Ripped up the fire-impregnate womb of rocks, And yet his might's confined to Tellus' bounds Zeus only can do this! ZEUS. Ha! Cadmus' daughter asks Kronion if Kronion e'er can love!
Zeus reigns on high, above the thunderbolts, And, clasped in Juno's arms, a reptile scorns. Semele and Juno! which the reptile! SEMELE. How blessed beyond all utterance would be Cadmus' daughter wert thou Zeus! Alas! Thou art not Zeus! SEMELE. Strong is that mortal's arm whom gods protect, Saturnius loves thee none can I e'er love But deities
The Capitoline-hill was anciently called Saturnius, from the ancient city of Satur'nia, of which it was the citadel; it was afterwards called the Tarpeian mount, and finally received the name of Capitoline from a human head being found on its summit when the foundations of the temple of Jupiter were laid.
All such parts of these early scenic entertainments as were not mere conversation or ribaldry, were probably composed in the Saturnian metre. This ancient rhythm, the only one indigenous to Italy, presents some points worthy of discussion. The original application of the name is not agreed upon. Thompson says, "The term Saturnius seems to have possessed two distinct applications.
"The sixth of the calends of October," The Acts set forth, "the very glorious Theodosius being consul for the twelfth time, and Valentinian Augustus for the second, Augustin the bishop, accompanied by Religianus and Martinianus, his fellow-bishops, having taken his place in the Basilica of Peace at Hippo, and the priests Saturnius, Leporius, Barnaby, Fortunatianus, Lazarus, and Heraclius, being present, with all the clergy and a vast crowd of people Augustin the bishop said: "'Let us without delay look to the business which I declared yesterday to your charity, and for which I desired you to gather here in large numbers, as I see you have done.
Hence the rude rhythmical effusions, which contained the early Roman story, might be called Saturnian, not with reference to their metrical law, but to their antiquity; and the term Saturnius was also applied to a definite measure on the principles of Greek prosody, though rudely and loosely moulded the measure employed by Naevius, which soon became antiquated, when Ennius introduced the hexameter and which is the metrum Saturnium recognised by the grammarians."
We meet, indeed, with more refinement, and more generally with those amiable courtesies which are its proper fruits: those vices also have become less frequent, which naturally infest the darkness of a ruder and less polished age, and which recede on the approach of light and civilization: Defluxit numerus Saturnius, & grave virus Munditiæ pepulere: But with these grossnesses, Religion, on the other hand, has also declined; God is forgotten; his providence is exploded; his hand is lifted up, but we see it not; he multiplies our comforts, but we are not grateful; he visits us with chastisements, but we are not contrite.
Word Of The Day