Note 242 — LIFE OF SULLA.

The Saturnalia were a kind of Carnival at Rome in the month of December, when people indulged themselves in feasting and revelry, and the slaves had the license of doing for a time what they pleased, and acting as if they were freemen. The original "freedom of speech" may mean a little more than these words convey. The point of the centurion's remark, like many other jokes of antiquity, seems rather blunt. He simply meant to express surprise at seeing slaves in an army serving as soldiers—they whose only freedom, so far as he knew, was to have a little license once a year at the Saturnalia.