Abstract

the subject of this work is the recurrence of the following elements in Varro’s Saturae Menippeae: the common noun philosophia; the common noun philo­sophi and synonyms; the references to the different sects ; the proper nouns of philosophers, especially of so crates; the mention of Hercules, celebrated hero by Cynics. the aim is the study of the philosophical aspect; 38 fragments were analysed from Cèbe’s edition and after the examination it emerged that Varro drew on a common repertoire of cynical thoughts and topics, derived from Menippus. nevertheless Varro doesn’t restrict himself to reutilize cynical ideas, because he’s politically a conservative, far from the radical positions of the cynic school, and he’s a broad-minded eclecticist, who has nothing to do with the strictness of the Cynics, irreducible adversaries of physicists, grammarians and epicureans