Io Saturnalia: per un'introduzione alla festa romana di dicembre

The introduction to the monographic volume on the Saturnalia offers an excursus on crucial topics concerning the famous celebration in December. This paper starts dealing with the connection of the Saturnalia with the Golden Age from a literary perspective and then with the principle of inversion, which is a true identity trait of the celebration. The link between politics and Saturnalia is analysed, first in the republican age, with the lex tappula, Cicero and Julius Caesar, and then in the Principate. Finally, the paper dwells on the literary production of Saturnalia.