It has been much disputed among modern critics, whether the
SATIRE
of the Romans was derived from the Greeks, or was of their own invention. The former opinion has been maintained by the elder Scaliger[380], Heinsius[381], Vulpius[382], and, among the most recent German critics, by Blankenburg[383], Conz, and Flogel[384]; the latter theory, which seems to have been that of the Romans themselves, particularly of Horace and Quintilian[385], has been supported by Diomedes[386], Joseph Scaliger, Casaubon[387], Spanheim[388], Rigaltius[389], Dacier[390], and Dryden, and by Koenig[391], and Manso, among the Germans. Those who suppose that satire descended directly from the Greeks to the Romans, derive the word from Satyrus, the well-known mythological compound of a man and goat. Casaubon, on the other hand, and most of those who have followed him, deduce it from the adjective Satura, a Sabine word, originally signifying a medley, and, afterwards,—full or abundant. To [pg 233]this word the substantive Lanx was understood, which meant the platter or charger whereon the first fruits of the earth were offered to Bacchus at his festivals,—
“Ergo rite suum Baccho dicemus honorem
Carminibus patriis, lancesque et liba feremus[392].”
The term Satura thus came to be applied to a species of composition, originally written in various sorts of verse, and comprehending a farrago of all subjects,—
“Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
Gaudia, discursus[393],” &c.
In the same way, laws were called Leges Saturæ, when they consisted of several heads and titles: and Verrius Flaccus calls a dish, which I suppose was a sort of olla podrida—Satura:—“Satura cibi genus ex variis rebus conditum.” Dacier, however, though he agrees with Casaubon as to the Latin origin of satire, derives the term from Saturn; as he believes that it was at festivals in honour of that ancient god of Italy that those rustic impromptus, which gave rise to satire, were first recited.