(Satira Menippae), a kind of satire consisting of prose and verse intermixed. It is so called from Menippus, a Cynic philosopher, who delighted in composing satirical letters in this style. In imitation of him Varro also wrote satires under the title of Satire Menippae; and hence this sort of composition is also denominated Varronian satire. Amongst the moderns there is a celebrated piece under this title, which was first published in 1594, against the chiefs of the league, called also the Catholicon of Spain. It is esteemed a masterpiece for the time.

a Cynic philosopher, with whose private history we are but very slightly acquainted. Neither his birth-place nor the time during which he flourished, are known with any degree of precision. It is supposed that he was a native of Gadara, a small village of Phoenicia, (Strab.xvi.759), and that he lived before the year 200 B.C., as he is spoken of by Hermippus, according to Diogenes Laërtius. He was originally a slave, but having purchased his liberty, he settled at Thebes, where he obtained the rights and privileges of a citizen. He devoted himself to usury, and amassed a considerable sum of money, but having been robbed, he fell into such despair that he hanged himself. This is the statement of Diogenes Laërtius, but the character left of him by the ancients does not agree with it. He was a follower of the Cynic philosophy, and regarded with contempt the luxuries of life. Lucian, in his Dialogues of the Dead, makes Diogenes describe him as "old, bald-headed, wearing a threadbare cloak, with abundance of apertures in it, pervious to every wind, and patched with rags of all possible colours; and as laughing incessantly at those conceited pedants, the philosophers, who are generally the objects of his derision." Lucian has introduced Menippus in many of his dialogues, and always as a man despising the perishable things of this life. Varro, in his Satires, imitated the style of Menippus, so that they were called Satire Menippae. (Cic. i. 2. Gell. xi.18., xiii.30.)