Macrobius' Saturnalia Book One

He further illustrates the Roman poet’s debt not only to Homer but also to many other Greek writers (5. 17. 15-5. 22. 15). He also remarks on Caesar’s debt to the Egyptians and the Greeks regarding the development of the Roman calendar (1. 16. 38-44). In the second book, when discussing the use of wine and the pleasures of the senses, he refers to Plato, Aristotle, and Hippocrates (2. 8. 5-16). In the seventh book, he argues in favor of discussing philosophical questions at the dinner table (7. 1. 5-24). The seventh book also contains his observations on tact in dinner conversation (7. 2 and 3) and his arguments with his fellow Greek, the physician Disarius, on various physiological subjects (7. 14-16).

Eusebius

Eusebius is an elderly (7. 10. 1) Greek rhetorician who takes the place of the lawyer Postumianus at the symposium and later recounts what transpired there (1. 2. 7; 1. 6. 2). His discourse on Vergil’s knowledge of oratory (referred to in 1. 24. 14) may have been part of the missing chapters at the end of the fragmentary fourth book, as he is found discussing styles of oratory at the beginning of the fifth book. In the seventh book, he discusses the characteristics of old age with the physician Disarius (7. 10). Jan suggests he may be the Alexandrian rhetorician of that name.

Disarius

Disarius (who may be the doctor mentioned by Symmachus in the forty-third letter of the ninth book of his Letters) was also a Greek (7. 5. 2; 7. 5. 4) and, like Eusebius, was getting on in years (7. 10. 1). He is said to be the most skilled medical professional in Rome (1. 7. 1). Praetextatus, whom Disarius visited alongside Evangelus and Horus (1. 7. 1), uses his presence as the basis for proposing that the after-dinner conversation on the final day of the Saturnalia should focus on medical topics (7. 4. 1-3). It is during this conversation that the others pose various questions to him, which comprise the greater part of the seventh book. As a follower of the physician and anatomist...