Macrobius' Saturnalia Book One

of character (1. 5. 4)—a quality, however, sometimes accompanied in a Roman by a certain priggish self-consciousness and lack of humor. Praetextatus is made to show these traits, for example, in his rebuke to the young Avienus for appearing to disparage Socrates (2. 1. 4) and perhaps more clearly in his remark that his household gods would not approve of any entertainment that suggested a cabaret (2. 1. 7). His antiquarian interests are well illustrated by his discussion of the origins of the festival of the Saturnalia (1. 7-10) and of the Roman calendar (1. 12-16). His intimate knowledge of pagan religious observances—he is said to be sacrorum omnium unice conscius uniquely aware of all sacred rites (1. 7. 17)—is illustrated by his discourses on Vergil’s acquaintance with pontifical law (3. 4-12) and by the long speech in which he explains that all the gods of Greek and Roman mythology represent the attributes of one supreme divine power—the sun (1. 17-23).On the monument referred to in the following note, his wife, addressing him, says: divumque numen multiplex doctus colis original: "Learnedly you worship the manifold divinity of the gods.". A sepulchral monumentCIL VI. 1779. See Ellis, Avianus, p. xxxii, and Glover, pp. 162-64. To Jerome, of course, Praetextatus was miserabilis Praetextatus . . . homo sacrilegus et idolorum cultor original: "miserable Praetextatus... a sacrilegious man and a worshiper of idols" (Contra Ioannem Hierosolymitanum 8). records the sacred offices he held; and the same monument testifies to his scholarship, for it tells of his services to letters in revising and emending the texts of Greek and Latin authors. Nevertheless, as presented in the Saturnalia, he gives the impression of being something of a pedant, and Evangelus has grounds for taunting him with making a parade of his learning (1. 11. 1).

Symmachus

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, statesman, orator, and man of letters, was a younger contemporary and a close friend of Praetextatus. An inscription to his memory records the offices he heldCIL VI, 1699. and refers to his oratory, which Prudentius said was more than a match even for Cicero’s.Prudentius Contra orationem Symmachi 1. 632-34 (cf. 2. 55-58). His correspondence, drastically edited by his son, shows the remarkably wide circle of friends, both pagan and Christian, with whom he was intimate. He must have been a much pleasanter person than