Saturnian (poetry)

Introduction

Saturnian meter or verse is an old Latin and Italic poetic form, of which the principles of versification have become obscure. Only 132 complete uncontroversial verses survive. 95 literary verses and partial fragments have been preserved as quotations in later grammatical writings, as well as 37 verses in funerary or dedicatory inscriptions. The majority of literary Saturnians come from the Odysseia (more commonly known as the Odissia of Odyssia), a translation/paraphrase of Homer’s Odyssey by Livius Andronicus, and the Bellum Poenicum, an epic on the First Punic War by Gnaeus Naevius.

The meter was moribund by the time of the literary verses and forgotten altogether by classical times, falling out of use with the adoption of the hexameter and other Greek verse forms. These were considered more sophisticated than the native tradition; Horace called the Saturnian horridus. Consequently, the poetry was not preserved.

Ancient grammarians sought to derive the verse from a Greek model, in which syllable weight or the arrangement of light and heavy syllables was the governing principle. Scholars today remain divided between two approaches:

The meter was quantitative (but not borrowed from Greek).
The meter was accentual or based on accented and unaccented syllables.

Despite the division, there is some consensus regarding aspects of the verse’s structure. A Saturnian line can be divided into two cola or half-lines, separated by a central caesura. The second colon is shorter than or as long as the first. Furthermore, in any half-line with seven or more syllables, the last three or four are preceded by word-end. This is known as Korsch’s caesura or the caesura Korschiana, after its discoverer.

The Saturnian as Quantitative

Most—but not all—Saturnians can be captured by the following scheme:

∪ = light syllable
– = heavy syllable
∪∪ = two light syllables that occupy the space of one heavy
vertical dotted line (|| infra) = caesura
∪ over – (x at verse-end) = position can be occupied by either light or heavy syllable
∪∪ over – over ∪ = position can be occupied by any of the three

Examples

Numeration of literary fragments is according to Warmington’s edition. Translations are also by Warmington (see bibliography infra).

(1) Livius Andronicus, Odissia fragment 1

Virum mihī Camēna īnsece uersūtum

∪ – ∪ – || ∪ – ∪ || – ∪ ∪ – – x

‘Tell me, O Goddess of song, of the clever man’

(2) Naevius, Bellum Poenicum fragments 2–4

Postquam auem aspexit in templō Anchīsa

sacr(ā) in mēnsā Penātium ordine pōnuntur

immolābat auream victimam pulchram

– ∪ ∪ ∪ || – – ∪ || – – – – – x

∪ – – – || ∪ – (∪) – || – ∪ – – – x

– ∪ – – || – ∪ – || – ∪ – – x

’After Anchises had seen a bird within the range of view,

hallowed offerings were set in a row on the table of the Household Gods;

and he busied himself in sacrificing a beautiul golden victim.’

(3) Epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus

GNAIVOD·PATRE

PROGNATVS·FORTIS·VIR·SAPIENSQVE—QVOIVS·FORMA·VIRTVTEI·PARISVMA

FVIT—CONSOL CENSOR·AIDILIS·QVEI·FVIT·APVD·VOS—TAVRASIA·CISAVNA

SAMNIO·CEPIT—SVBIGIT·OMNE·LOVCANA·OPSIDESQVE·ABDOVCIT

In regularized orthography (note the punctuation on the stone, viz. — corresponds to verse-end):

Gnaeuō patre / prōgnātus, fortis uir sapiēnsque

cuius fōrma uirtūtī parissuma / fuit

cōnsul, cēnsor, aedīlis quī fuit apud uōs

Taurāsiam, Cisaunam, / Samnium cēpit

subigit omnem Lūcānam, opsidēsque abdūcit.

– – ∪ ∪ || – – – || – – – || ∪ ∪ – x

– ∪* – ∪ || – – – || ∪ – ∪ ∪ ∪ x

– – – – || – – ∪* || – ∪ ∪† ∪ –** x

– – ∪ – || ∪ – – || – ∪ – – x

∪∪ ∪ – – || – – ∪ || – ∪ – ∪ || – – x

* As in early Latin poetry, if not – as in later.

** Some early Latin poetry treats this as ∪.

† This syllable is historically –.

‘Sprung from Gnaeus his father, a man strong and wise,

whose appearance was most in keeping with his virtue,

who was consul, censor, and aedile among you,

He captured Taurasia, Cisauna, Samnium,

he subdued all Lucania and led off hostages.’

The Saturnian as Accentual

W.M. Lindsay formalizes the accentual scheme of the Saturnian as follows:

´ = accented syllable
∪ = unaccented

Most proponents of this theory assume that accentuation was as in Classical Latin. However, there is reason to believe that the Old Latin accent may have played a role in the verse.

Examples

Here are the same texts from above, scanned accentually.

(1) Livius Andronicus, Odissia fragment 1

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪ ∪ (Old Latin)

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪ (Classical Latin)

(2) Naevius, Bellum Poenicum fragments 2–4

(Old Latin)

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ ´ ∪ ∪

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ (∪) ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪ ∪

´ ∪ ` ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪

(Classical Latin)

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ (∪) ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪

` ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪

(3) Epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus

(Old Latin)

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ´ || ´ ∪ ` ∪

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ´ ∪ ´ ∪ ´

´ ∪ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪

´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ || ´ ∪ ` ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪

(Classical Latin)

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ´ || ` ∪ ´ ∪

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪

´ ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ´ ∪ ´ ∪ ´

∪ ´ ∪ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ || ´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪

´ ∪ ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪ || ` ∪ ´ ∪ || ∪ ´ ∪

Bibliography

In English, two collections of the texts are available. The second volume of E. H. Warmington’s Remains of Old Latin in the Loeb Classical Library series (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1936) contains Livius Andronicus and Naevius’ Saturnians, among other poetry and poets. Inscriptional texts can be found in E. Courtney’s MUSA LAPIDARIA: A Selection of Latin Verse Inscriptions (Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1995). Regarding the meter, the standard quantitative treatment is still Thomas Cole, “The Saturnian Verse”, Yale Classical Studies 21 (1969): 3–73. The details of the accentual approach are set out in W.M. Lindsay, “The Saturnian Meter. Second Paper”, American Journal of Philology 14.3 (1893): 305–334. A new proposal that draws from Generative Linguistics has recently been put forward by Jed Parsons in “A New Approach to the Saturnian Verse and Its Relation to Latin Prosody”, Transactions of the American Philological Association 129 (1999): 117–137. This is currently under follow-up investigation by Angelo Mercado, whose analysis is available on line.