690 
SAT 
especially on a poor dry soil, or on a wall: but when the 
plants are old, the shoots are short, and not so well furnished 
With leaves; it will be proper, therefore, to raise a supply of 
young plants every other year. 
The other sorts are too tender to live through the winter 
in the open air in England. They are generally propagated 
by slips or cuttings, which take root very readily during any 
of the summer months. 
SATU'RITY, s. [saturite , old French ; saturitas, from 
saluro, Lat.] Fulness; the state of being saturated; reple¬ 
tion. 
He, going to their stately place, did find in every dish 
Fat beef, and brewis, and great store of dainty fowl and fish; 
Who seeing their saturity, and practising to win 
His pupils thence, Excess, he said, doth work access to sin. 
Warner. 
SATURN, s. A god among the Romans. He was the 
eldest of the gods, and usually, represented Time. He was 
the father of Jove. He is represented under the figure of a 
decrepid old man in fetters, with a long beard, and hoary 
head; bearing in his right hand a pruning hook or scythe, 
and in his left a child, which he is about to devour. Ac¬ 
cording to the Roman fable, Saturn, being dethroned by 
Jupiter, took refuge in Italy, called from him Satumia, where 
he introduced several parts of agriculture, particularly the 
art of pruning and managing the vines, and civilized the 
people, uniting them to one another in chains of brass, i. e. 
by brass money, which he invented. 
The name Saturn is derived by some a satu, from 
sowing; because he is said to have first taught the art of 
sowing and tilling the ground, in Italy, and was therefore 
esteemed the god of husbandry, and called by the Romans 
Stercutius, because he first manured the earth with dung; 
and on this account he is painted with a sickle. By others 
his name is derived a saturando, from that fulness which is 
the effect of his bounty; as his wife was called Ops, because 
she helps the hungry. Others ascribe the name to his 
being satisfied with the years that he devours; Saturn and 
Time being the same. Thus Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, quod 
ipse saturetur annis quos ipse devorat. Others again 
derive the name from sat or vov, because he is the former of 
the mind. 
Rome, and several other cities of Italy, dedicated tem¬ 
ples to Saturn, and paid him religious worship. But it was 
chiefly among the Carthaginians that he was particularly 
honoured. Our ancient Gauls and the neighbouring nations 
were also distinguished votaries of Saturn. Nobody doubts 
but human sacrifices were offered to him, as well as to Mo¬ 
loch, especially by the Gauls and at Carthage; and this bar¬ 
barous custom continued in that city till the Romans made 
themselves masters of it, It was also practised in Italy, 
though it did not subsist there long. Dionysius of Halicar¬ 
nassus, who was better versed in the antiquities of Italy than 
any other author, tells us that Hercules, upon his return 
from Spain into Italy, abolished it entirely; and having 
erected an altar to that god upon the Saturnine Mount, 
offered to him those sorts of victims which the Greeks call 
Tvyala ayya, which, according to the scholiast on Thucy¬ 
dides, were of paste, figured like animals; or, if we may 
believe Dionysius Halicarnassus, in the similitude of men. 
SATURN, s. One of the primary planets; being that 
which is farthest from the earth, and the sun, whose motion 
is the slowest, if we except the Georgium Sidus. It is thus 
characterized, b. Its mean diameter is 79042 miles: it 
revolves round its axis in 10 h 16', and round the sun, at the 
distance of 900,000,000 miles, in 10746d 19h 16' 15".5 
tropical revolutions, and 10759d l h 51' 11 ".2 sidereal revo¬ 
lutions. 
Saturn shines but with a feeble light, by reason of its 
distance. See Astronomy. 
SATURN, in Chemistry, signifies lead; in regard that 
metal is supposed to lie immediately under the influence of 
this planet. 
SATURN, in Heraldry, denotes the black colour in the 
SAT 
coats of arms of sovereign princes; answering to diamond 
in the coats of noblemen, and sable in those of gentlemen. 
SATURNALIA, feasts celebrated among the Ramans, 
in honour of the god Saturn. 
The saturnalia, called in the Greek language Kyorm, were 
instituted either by Tullus, king of the Romans, or, accord¬ 
ing to Livy, by Sempronius and Minutius, the consuls. 
Till the time of Julius Caesar they were finished in one day, 
viz. the 19th of December; but then they began to be 
celebrated in three days, and afterwards in four or five, by 
order of Caligula; and some say, that they have lasted 
seven days, and when these days were added to the feast, 
the first day of celebrating it was the 17th of December. 
During this solemnity, the slaves were reputed masters ;■ 
they were allowed to say any thing; and, in fine, they were 
served at table by the masters themselves. Every thing ram 
into debauchery and dissoluteness, and nothing was heard or 
seen in the city of Rome, but the din, riot, and disorder of 
a people wholly abandoned to joy and pleasure. 
M. Dacier observes, that the Saturnalia were not only 
celebrated in honour of Saturn, but also to keep up the re¬ 
membrance of the golden age, when all the world was on a 
level. 
On occasion of this feast, presents were sent from friends 
to one another; no war was to be proclaimed, and no of¬ 
fender executed; the schools observed holiday; and the 
senate did not sit. 
The Saturnalia were not only observed at Rome, but 
also in Greece; and were, in reality, much older than Rome 
itself. Some ascribe their institution to the Pelasgi, who 
were cast upon the island of Delos; others to Hercules; 
and others to Janus. Goropius Becanus makes Noah the 
author of them. (Orig. lib. iv.) Vossius goes still higher, 
and will have it, that the Saturn, in honour of whom this’ 
feast was instituted, was Adam. 
SATURNA'LIAN, adj. [from the Lat. Saturnalia .] 
Sportive; loose, like the feasts of Saturn.—In order to make 
this saturnalian amusement general in the family, you sent 
it down stairs. Burke. 
SATURNESS, a cape on the south coast of Scotland, in 
the county of Kirkcudbright. Lat. 54. 57. N. long. 3. 
38. W. 
SATU'RNIAN, adj. [saturnius, Lat.] Happy; golden: 
used hy poets for times of felicity, such as are feigned to 
have been in the reign of Saturn.' —Th’ Augustus, born to 
bring Saturnian times. Pope. 
SATURNI COLUMN.®, in Ancient Geography, a name 
anciently given to mountains of Africa and Spain, called 
also the “ columns of Briareus and of Hercules.’ 1 
SATURNILLIANS. See Saturninians. 
SATURNIN, St., a small town in the south of France, 
department of the Mouths of the Rhone. Population 1500;, 
5 miles north of Apt, and 15 south-east of Carpentras. 
SATURNIN, St., a small town in the central part of 
France, department of the Puy de Dome, near the Monne. 
Population 1500. 
SATURNIN, St., another small town in the south of 
France, department of the Aveyron, on the Serre; 18 miles 
north-east of Rhodez. 
SATURNINE, or Saturnian, a term applied to per¬ 
sons of dark, sullen, melancholic complexions; as being 
supposed under the predominancy of Saturn, or at whose 
births Saturn was the ascendant. 
SATURNINIANS, or Saturnii.lians, a sect of an¬ 
cient Gnostics; thus called from their chief Saturnillus, or 
Shturinus, a disciple of Menander, the famous Gnostic. 
Saturnillus taught the same errors with his master, in 
Syria, about the close of the second century; and drew 
after him marly disciples, by the pompous-appearance of an 
extraordinary virtue. He held the doctrine of two prin¬ 
ciples, from whence proceeded all tilings: the one a wise 
and benevolent deity; and the other, matter, a principle 
essentially evil, and which he supposed under the superin¬ 
tendance of a certain intelligence of a malignant nature. 
The world and its first inhabitants were, according to the 
system 
