Sator Square
Sign in to saveAlso known as Sator-Rotas Square, Rotas Square, Templar Magic Square, SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS, ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR
word square containing a five-word Latin palindrome
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A Sator Square (laid out in the SATOR format), etched onto a wall in the medieval fortress town of Oppède-le-Vieux, France
The Sator Square (also called the Rotas-Sator Square or the Templar Magic Square) is a two-dimensional acrostic class of word square containing a five-word Latin palindrome. The earliest squares were found at Roman-era sites and were all in ROTAS form (i.e. where the top line is "ROTAS" and not "SATOR"), with the earliest discovery at Pompeii (and dating from before the earthquake of AD 62). The earliest square with Christian-associated imagery dates from the sixth century. By the Middle Ages, Sator squares were to be found in Europe, Asia Minor, and in North Africa. In 2022, the Encyclopedia Britannica called it "the most familiar lettered square in the Western world".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sator Square” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.