Illa December habet : sulle tracce dei Saturnalia di Ovidio

Although Ovid did not reach Fasti xii, in which he could have described the Saturnalia, this paper argues that the Saturnalia theme informs other passages of the poem. Features resembling the Saturnalia emerge in the Floralia, the festivals of Anna Perenna, and the Kalends of January. The reception of the poem, both ancient and humanistic, recognizes and develops these connections. The foretaste of the Saturnalia in the first six books of the Fasti suggests that the poem was conceived in its entireness and makes a case for considering the contents of the missing books while reading the available portions.