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But in former times the name of satire was given to poems which were composed of several sorts of verses, such as were made by Ennius and Pacuvius" more fully expressing the etymology of the word satire from satura, which we have observed. Here it is manifest that Diomedes makes a specifical distinction betwixt the satires of Ennius and those of Lucilius.

Other elements of poetry were called into action in the primitive popular carnival, the comic dance or -satura-, which beyond doubt reached back to a period anterior to the separation of the stocks.

Casaubon judged better, and his opinion is grounded on sure authority: that satire was derived from satura, a Roman word which signifies full and abundant, and full also of variety, in which nothing is wanting to its due perfection. It is thus, says Denier, that we say a full colour, when the wool has taken the whole tincture and drunk in as much of the dye as it can receive.

The close and original connection, which Livy in particular represents as subsisting between the Atellan farce and the -satura- with the drama thence developed, is not at all tenable.

According to this derivation, from setur comes satura or satira, according to the new spelling, as optumus and maxumus are now spelled optimus and maximus. Virgil has mentioned these sacrifices in his "Georgics": "Lancibus et pandis fumantia reddimus exta;"

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

There was one class of semi-poetical composition which Varro made peculiarly his own, the Satura Menippea, a medley of prose and verse, treating of all kinds of subjects just as they came to hand in the plebeian style, often with much grossness, but with sparkling point. Of these Saturae he wrote no less than 150 books, of which fragments have been preserved amounting to near 600 lines.

and in another place, lancesque et liba feremus that is, "We offer the smoking entrails in great platters; and we will offer the chargers and the cakes." This word satura has been afterward applied to many other sorts of mixtures; as Festus calls it, a kind of olla or hotch-potch made of several sorts of meats.

Satura In recitative poetry the most surprising circumstance is the insignificance of the Epos, which during the sixth century had occupied decidedly the first place in the literature destined for reading; it had numerous representatives in the seventh, but not a single one who had even temporary success. In didactic and elegiac poetry no prominent name appears.

The aesthetic writings, which have made him a name, were brief essays, some in simple prose and of graver contents, others humorous sketches the prose groundwork of which was inlaid with various poetical effusions. In neither case did he follow Latin models, and the -Satura- of Varro in particular was by no means based on that of Lucilius.