person
also known as Varro
The Roman scholar Bob places at the head of the satiric lineage in dialogue 24 — the man "at the time of Christ" who recovered the text of the Greek Menippus and so carried the form forward. Centuries later Dryden would name the strain "Varronian" after him, distinguishing it from the satire of Horace and Juvenal. Varro is the hinge between Menippus's original outrage and its modern retrieval as Menippean satire.
Across the dialogues
24
Enters as the Roman transmitter — the scholar "at the time of Christ" through whom Menippus survives, and the eventual eponym of Dryden's "Varronian"
Varro is the transmitter — his recovery of Menippus's writing is what let the mixed-media satire survive antiquity to be renamed and retrieved much later.
"Varro lived at the time of Christ back there around then, and he discovered the text of Menippus."
Connections
preservedMenippus
Varro recovered the text of Menippus, keeping the satiric form alive into Roman letters.
namesMenippean Satire
The "Varronian" satire Dryden later named descends from Varro's revival of Menippus.