Scholarly interlocutors in the Saturnalia

Abstract This chapter explores the models for scholarly comportment and authority in the Saturnalia. The Saturnalia departs from other late antique texts in choosing Aulus Gellius’ Noctes Atticae, instead of the works of Varro, as its primary model of scholarly learning. In Macrobius’ dialogue, Gellius shapes the content of the interlocutors’ conversations and their behaviour. However, the Saturnalia consciously departs from the Noctes Atticae in advocating a slightly more inclusive approach to the composition of its learned gatherings. In this regard, Macrobius comes closest in moral outlook to Cicero’s dialogues, which also afford a precedent for the use of a rhetorical, and less hierarchical, mode of intellectual debate.