Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1008 SATURA. SATURA.
SA'RCULUM (a sarrieludo, Varro, (le L. Lat. things consisting of various parts or ingredientS,
v. 31, arKXtMi, oKacaXlrT'7plov ), a hoe, chiefly used in e.. latx SLatura, an offering c-nsisting of various
weeding gardens, cornfields, and vineyards. (Hor. fruits, such as were offered at harvest festivals and
Carnr. i. 1. 11; Ovid. ]Met. xi. 36, Fast. i. 699, to Ceres (Acron, ad florat. Sat. i. 1; Diomed. iii,
iv. 930; Plaut. True. ii. 2. 21; Cato, de Re Rust. p. 483, ed. Putsch.); lex per satine'7 lata, a lawl
10; Columella, x. 21; Pallad. i. 43.) It was also which contained several distinct regsulations at
sometimes used to cover the seed when sown (Co- once. (Fest. s. v. Satrla.) It would appear from
lunmella, ii. 11), and in mountainous countries it the etymlology of the word, that the earliest Roserved instead of a plough. (Plin. IT. N. xviii. 19. man satura, of which we otherwise scarcely know
s. 49.) Directions for using it to clear the surface anything, must have treated in one work on a
of the ground (KadA.Xeu,, Herod. ii. 1 4; orcKaXESVEl, variety of subjects just as they occurred to tilhe
Schol. in Tieocrit. x. 14) are given by Palladius writer, and perhaps, as was the case with the
(de Re Ru.st. ii. 9). [J. Y.] satires of Varro, half in prose and half in verse, or
SARISSA. [ExERcrTus, p. 488, a.] in verses of different metre. Another feature of
SARRA'CUM, a kind of comlnon cart or wag- the earliest satura, as we learn frolll the celebrated
gon, which was used by the country-people of passage ill Livy (vii. 2.), is that it was scenic, that
Italy for conveying the produce of their fields, is, all improvisatory and irregular kind of dramatic
trees, and the like from one place to another. (Vi- performance, of the same class as the versus Festruv. x. 1; Juv. iii. 254.) Its name as well as cennini. [FESCENNINA.] When Livilns Androthe fact that it was used by several barbarous na- nicus introduced the regular drama at Roume, the
tions, shows that it was introduced from them into people, on account of their fondness for such exItaly. (Sidon. Epist. iv. 18; Amm. Marc. xxxi. tempore jokes and railleries, still continued to keep
2.) That persons also sometimes rode in a sar- up their former anusements, and it is not improracum, is clear from a passage of Cicero quoted by bable that the exodia of later times were the old
Quinctilian (viii. 3. ~ 21), who even regards the saturae merely under another name. [ExoDIA.]
word sarracum as low and vulgar. Capitolinus Ennius and Pacuvius are mentioned as the first
(Auntosi. Pkilos. 13) states, that during a plague the writers of satires, but we are entirely unable to
mortality at Rome was so great, that it was found judge whether their works were dramatic like the
necessary to carry the dead bodies out of the city satura of old, or whether they resembled the
upon the common sarraca. Several of the bar- satires of Lucilius and Horace. At any rate, howbarous nations with which the Romans came in ever, neither Ennius nor Paceuvius can have made
contact-used these waggons also in war, and placed any great improvement in this species of poetry,
them around their camips as a fortification (Sisenna, as Quinctilians (.. 1. ~ 93) does not mention either
ap. Non. iii. 35), anld the Scythians used them in of them, and describes C. Lucilius as the first great
their wanderings, and spent alslost their whole writer of satires. It is Lucilius who is universally
lives upon them with their wives and children, regarded by the ancients as the inventor of the
whence Ammianus compares such a caravan of new kind of satira, which resembled ont the whole
sarraca with all that was conveyed upon them to a that species of poetry which is in modern tinles
wandering city. The Romans appear to have used designated by the same name, and whiclh was no
the word sarracum as synonlymous with plaustrum, longer scenic or dramatic. The character of this
and Juvenal (v. 22) goes even so far as to apply new satire was afterwards emrnphatically called
it to the constellation of stars which was gene- character Lucilianus. (Varro, de Re JRsst. iii. 2.)
rally calied plaustrum. (Scheffer, de Re Vilsicul. These new satires wvere written' in hexameters,
ii. 31.) [L. S.] which metre was subsequently adopted by all the
SARTA'GO (-'s-yasov), was a sort of pan which other satirists, as Horace, Persius, and Juvenal,
was used in the Roman kitchens for a variety of who followed the path opened by Lucilius. Their
purposes, such as roasting, nmelting fat or butter, character was essentially ethical or practical, and
cooking, &c. (Plin. tI. AN xvi. 22; Juv. x. 63.) as the stage at Rome was not so free as at Athens,
Frequently also dishes consisting of a variety of the satires of the former had a similar object to
ingredients seem to have been prepared in such a that of the ancient comedy at the latter place. The
sartago, as Persius (i. 79) speaks of a sartago poets in their satires attacked not only the follies
loquenodi, that is, of a mixture of proper and iia- and vices of mankind in general, but also of such
proper expressions. Some commentators on this living and distinguished individuals as had ally
passage, and perhaps with more justice, understand influence upon their contemporaries. Such a species
the sartago loquendi as a mode of speaking in which of poetry must necessarily be subject to great
hissing sounds are employed, similar to the noise modifications, arising partly from the character of
produced when meat is fried in a pan. [L. S.] the time in which the poet lives, and partly from
SATISDA'TIO. [AcTIO.] the personal character and temperamnent of the
SAITURA, or in the softened form SATIRA, poet himself, and it is from these circumstances
is the name of a species of poetry, which we call that we have to explain the differences between
satire. Inl the history of Ronman- literature we the satires of Lucilius, Horace, Persiuts, and
have to distinguish two different kinds of satires, Juvenal.
viz. the early satura, and the later satira which After Lucilius had already by his own exasmple
received its perfect development from the poet C. established the artistic principles of satire, TerenLucilius (148 —103 B. c.). Both species of poetry, tits Varro in his youth wrote a kind of satires,
however, are altogether peculiar to the Romans. which were neither like the old satura nor like
Thle literal meaning of satura, the root of which is the satira of Lucilius. They consisted of a mixture
sat; comes nearest to what the French call peot- of verse and prose, and of verses of different
>oureri, or to the Latin fJisrago, a mixture of all metres, but were not scenic like the old'sattlrae.
sorts of things. The name was accordingly applied They were altogether of a peculiar character, aInd
by the Romans inl s any ways, but always to a ere thereforie called satirste Varroiliatslc, or M'e