Your query appears to bring together fragments of text, legal history, and religious festivals from ancient Rome and Greece, centering on Marcus Terentius Varro's Eumenides (one of his lost Menippean Satires).[1, 2, 3]

A direct reconstruction of how these specific elements connect reveals a complex cultural cross-section of the ancient world.

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1. Varro's Eumenides

Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC) wrote a highly influential collection of 150 Saturae Menippeae(Menippean Satires). Only 49 short, highly corrupted fragments of his satire titled Eumenides survive today.[1, 2, 3, 4]

• In Greek mythology, the Eumenides (the "Gracious Ones") are a euphemistic name for the Furies—the underworld goddesses of vengeance and madness. [1, 2]
• In Varro's work, the "Eumenides" represent the Furies causing madness, which Varro uses to satirize the "madness" of contemporary Roman society, philosophical doctrines, and foreign religious cults (such as the ecstatic worshippers of Cybele, the Galli). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

2. Marcus Scantius (Mistaken for "Scantina")

The word "Scantina" in your query likely references Marcus Scantius, a historical Roman politician (Tribune of the Plebs in 293 BC) belonging to the Scantia family (gens Scantia). [1]

• According to surviving scholarly records, Scantius appears as a character in Varro's Eumenides.
• Note on Confusion: People often mix up the character Scantius in this satire with the Lex Scantinia. The Lex Scantinia was an ancient Roman law that penalized stuprum (unacceptable sexual misconduct/penetration) involving freeborn male citizen youths. While Varro's Eumenides heavily satirizes trans-fringe sexual ethics and gender role subversion via the Galli priests, the word in the literary fragment itself refers to the character Scantius. [1, 2, 3, 4]

3. The Dionysia Connection

In the specific surviving fragment of Varro’s Eumenides featuring the character Scantius, Scantius is described as having written or said something regarding the Dionysia. [1]

• The Dionysia was the massive ancient Athenian festival celebrating Dionysus, the god of wine, theater, madness, and fertility.
• Varro, who wrote deeply about the history of Roman theater and religious origins (De scaenicis originibus), used this scene to mock Roman elite figures who tried to write about, intellectualize, or adopt Greek religious festivals like the Dionysia while losing touch with traditional Roman values. [1, 2, 3, 4]

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Summary of the Fragmentary Link

When you look at Varro's Eumenides on Scantius and the Dionysia, you are looking at a satirical Roman text where Varro uses a character named Scantius to poke fun at the way Romans interacted with the wild, theatrical, and ecstatic rituals of the Greek Dionysia. He frames this cultural blending as a form of social madness, watched over by the Furies (Eumenides). [1, 2, 3, 4]

If you are trying to locate the exact Latin text (Latin to English translation) of this specific fragment, let me know! I can track down the exact Fragment number from Jean-Pierre Cèbe's or Astbury's classical reconstructions of Varro's Menippean Satires.

fragment lat eng?

Varro's fragment on Scantius and the Dionysia is preserved in the Compendiosa Doctrina of Nonius Marcellus, appearing as "...cum in eo essem occupatus atque in schola curarer, ut scribit Scantius, horno per Dionysia". This text from Eumenides (Frag. 121 M) is in Latin and translates roughly to, "...when I was occupied in that matter and was being taken care of in the school—as Scantius writes—this year during the Dionysia festival". [1, 2]

The fragment uses the rare word horno to describe a character being treated at a Greek school/festival, with commentators suggesting it mocks a Roman named Scantius for over-adopting Greek customs to treat madness. The text is part of a satirical work focusing on insanity, where a Greek festival is ironically portrayed as a cure. [1, 2, 3]

larger context and parsing? cum in eo essem occupatus atque in schola curarer, ut scribit Scantius, horno per Dionysia".

1. Grammatical Parsing

The grammar of the fragment breaks down into a main temporal clause with coordinating elements and an embedded quote: [1, 2]

• cum: Conjunction. "When" or "while." Used here with the subjunctive to set the background scene (a circumstantial cum clause).
• in eo: Preposition + Dem. Pronoun. "In that [matter]" or "occupied in that thing." In takes the ablative neuter singular eo.
• essem occupatus: Verb. "I was occupied/busy." This is the first-person singular, imperfect passive subjunctive of occupare.
• atque: Coordinating Conjunction. "And also." Stronger than a simple et.
• in schola: Preposition + Noun. "In the school" or "lecture-hall/philosophical sect." In takes the ablative feminine singular schola.
• curarer: Verb. "I was being treated" or "being taken care of." This is the first-person singular, imperfect passive subjunctive of curare.
• ut: Conjunction. "As" or "just as." Introduces a comparative parenthetical statement.
• scribit: Verb. "Writes" or "records." Third-person singular, present active indicative of scribere.
• Scantius: Proper Noun. "Scantius." Nominative masculine singular, serving as the subject of scribit.
• horno: Adverb/Ablative noun fragment. "This year" or "in this very year". It is a rare archaism (derived from hoc anno), which is exactly why the 4th-century grammarian Nonius Marcellus preserved this quote in his Compendiosa Doctrina.
• per Dionysia: Preposition + Proper Noun. "During the Dionysia festival." Per takes the accusative neuter plural Dionysia. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Direct Literal Translation

"...while I was occupied in that matter and was being treated in the school—as Scantius writes, 'this year during the Dionysia'..." [1]

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2. The Larger Context

Because Varro's Menippean Satires only survive in tiny fragments quoted by later grammarians, scholars reconstruct the thematic context based on surrounding phrases and classical analysis: [1, 2]

The Broader Scene

Immediately following this fragment, Varro's text transitions into a chaotic scene where students or philosophers wake up with a hangover from academic banquets and wander outside: [1]

"...and we other students rise up, our ears stuffed with the scholarly banquet and drunk on sophisticated endless talk; with hungry eyes I head home, and passing the temple of the Mother of the Gods (Cybele), I hear the crash of cymbals..." [1]

The Literary Satire

The title of the satire is Eumenides (The Furies/Goddesses of Madness). The entire work is an extended joke comparing philosophical obsession and foreign religious cults to mental insanity. [1, 2]

• The "School" Clinic: In ancient Greek philosophy, a schola was sometimes metaphorically or literally treated as a place to "cure" madness of the soul. The narrator is poking fun at a Roman who went to an intellectual "clinic" to get treated. [1, 2]
• The Target (Scantius): Classical historians like T.P. Wiseman suggest that Scantius was likely a real, elite Roman contemporary of Varro who was prententiously obsessed with Greek culture (a "Hellenomaniac"). Varro quotes Scantius's own writing ("ut scribit Scantius") to mock how pompously Scantius described spending his year at the Greek theater festival (Dionysia) trying to intellectualize his life. [1, 2, 3]
• The Irony: Varro sets up a sharp contrast. The narrator is sitting inside a "rational" Greek school trying to cure his mind, but right outside the door, the wild, ecstatic, and chaotic worshippers of the goddess Cybele are screaming and banging cymbals. Human reason and academic "treatments" are entirely overwhelmed by the madness of the world. [1]