romances of his own times. The Alexander is a satirical biography of Alexander of Abonouteichus, who established an oracle in Pontus in the time of Marcus Aurelius, and gained such a reputation that people came even from Rome to consult him. The Sale of Lives is an auction in which Zeus acts as proprietor and Hermes as auctioneer, and the wares for sale are the famous philosophers, with the modes of life resulting from their teachings.

But it would be useless to make a list of Lucian's writings. His greatness lies in his originality, his genuine hatred of all that is false or pretentious, his quick perceptions, and his biting humor-all expressed in a peculLucian's style iarly attractive style. This style is apparently spontaneous, and yet is founded upon imitation

and manner of writing. of the Attic writers, especially of Plato; but the imitation is unconscious. Lucian's education consisted in great part of reading the classics, and their language had become quite as much a part of his nature as had the Greek of his own time. Possibly the fact that Greek was not his native language made it easier for him to write a purer style than many of his contemporaries. His mind was full of the great works of earlier times, and his own works contain countless direct and indirect references to them. These references are so skillfully introduced that they please us when we recognize them, but do not force. themselves upon us in such a way as to make us feel our ignorance when we fail to understand them. There is much in Lucian's manner of writing that recalls the New Comedy. He probably had precursors in the art of prose satire-for instance, Menippus (see page 362), whom he introduces in his dialogues-but the freshness and delicacy of his wit and the charm of his style are all his own.

Alciphron, an imitator and probably younger contemporary of Lucian, is known to us by a collection of one hundred and eighteen letters, in five books. Imaginary letters were one of the forms of the sophistic writing of

the time. Alciphron's letters, written in the names of men and women of all classes, describe scenes similar to those of the New Comedy. The time and place are the

Alciphron. fourth century B. C. and Athens. The language is elegant, the style easy and attractive, and the description of life and customs is interesting. Alciphron is, however, in all respects inferior to Lucian.

The

Philostrati.

Works by three sophists named Philostratus are preserved. The eldest of the three, Flavius Philostratus, was, according to Suidas, an Athenian, who flourished under Septimius Severus (193–211 A. D.), and taught at Athens and Rome. He wrote a Life of Apollonius of Tyana and Lives of the Sophists. The first work, written at the suggestion of the Empress Julia Domna, is a pretentious biography of a Pythagorean impostor and wonder-man of the first century after Christ, and is interesting chiefly because it shows how readily the people allowed themselves to be imposed upon. The Lives of the Sophists-brief sketches of sophists and orators-are of some value, because they are derived from letters and other sources now lost, including the personal recollections of the writer. They show no critical faculty, and their style is not remarkable. A treatise On Gymnastics and some Letters by the same author may be passed over. The second Philostratus, son-in-law of the first, is called a Lemnian. He taught at Athens. When he was twenty-four years old the Emperor Caracalla, who reigned from 211 to 217, granted him freedom from taxation. His birth was, therefore, not far from 190 A. D. His Heroicus is a dialogue between a vintner living in the Chersonnese and a Phonician stranger. The vintner tells how the hero Protesilaus has appeared to him and given him much information about the ancient heroes. The work is based upon the old cyclic poems, and contains some interesting information about the ancient legends. The Pictures, by the same author, are descriptions of sixty-four pictures which the author

says he saw in a portico at Naples. Whether any or all of the pictures really existed is uncertain, but the descriptions are ingenious, clever essays, with considerable liveliness and good taste, in spite of some affectation. The third Philostratus, grandson of the second, wrote, toward the end of the third century, a second series of Pictures, much inferior to the first. Descriptions of ten works of statuary, by an unknown Callistratus, are generally published with the Pictures.

Ælian (Claudius Ælianus), born at Præneste, near Rome, was a contemporary of the Lemnian Philostratus. His extant works are the Nature of Animals, Ælian. the Various History, and the Rustic Letters. The Rustic Letters contain some situations from comedies transferred to epistolary form, and the other works contain a great array of facts, or what are supposed to be facts, accompanied by many anecdotes and much moralizing. The style aims at elegance and attains insipidity.

A collection of facts far more heterogeneous than those contained in Elian's works is the Deipnosophista (Dinnersophists) of Athenæus of Naucratis, in Egypt.

Athenæus.

Of this writer we know only the place of his birth and that he was born under Marcus Aurelius (161– 180 A. D.). His work, in fifteen books, is a curious assemblage of information on cooking, literature, art, history, and other matters, with no literary merit whatsoever, but valuable on account of the curious information and numerous quotations it contains.

CHAPTER XL

THE NOVEL-POETRY-SCIENCE-PHILOSOPHY

CHRISTIAN WRITERS

The Greek novel-Antonius Diogenes, first century after Christ— Iamblichus, about 170 a. D.-Xenophon of Ephesus, about 200 a. D.— Heliodorus, third century-Chariton, third century-Longus, second century (?)-Poetry-Dionysius the Periegete, second century—Oppian, about 138-168 A. D.-Babrius, early second century-Grammar and rhetoric-Apollonius Dyscolus, about 150 A. D.-Herodian, about 175 a. d. -Phrynichus, late second century-Pollux, end of the second century -Harpocration, end of the second century-Hermogenes of Tarsus, about 170 A. D.-Apsines, first half of the third century-Menander of Laodicea, about 200 a. D.-Longinus, about 220-273 A. D.-ScienceClaudius Ptolemy, about 140 A. D.-Galen, 131-201 A. D.-PhilosophySextus Empiricus, about 180 A. D.-Neoplatonism-Plotinus, 204–270 A. D.—Porphyry, 233 to about 304 A. D.-Christian writers-Quadratus, about 100 A. D.-Aristides of Athens, second century-Justin Martyr, about 100 to about 165 A. D.-Other apologists-Doctors of the Church --Clement of Alexandria, about 160 to about 215 A. D.—Origen, 185–254 A. D.-Other Christian writers.

The novel.

AN interesting product of the teachings of the sophists. of this period is the novel, the love story in prose. In itself the Greek novel is rather uninteresting, but it deserves a few words as the earliest known form of what has since developed into one of the most important branches of literature. The sentiment of love played, as has been said before, an important part in Alexandrian. poetry. Love elegies and epigrams were many and lovescenes were made prominent in epics. The love passages in history and mythology were also more dwelt upon than

in earlier times. At the same time the historians began to embellish their histories (especially those of Alexander) with marvelous and fantastic tales. It was therefore only natural that the sophists, when they wished to suggest to their pupils subjects for composition, should suggest strange situations which might lead to love-affairs. From such origins arose a series of novels full of impossible situations, strange reverses of fortune, wonderful recognitions and adventures, with no real delineation of character and little stylistic merit.

Antonius Di

ogenes, Iamblichus, Xenophon of Ephesus.

The earliest novels known to us-though there are traces of others somewhat earlier-date from the first century after Christ, and these are known only through summaries, as the originals are lost. At that time Antonius Diogenes wrote The Wonders Beyond Thule, in twenty-four books, a rambling tale of the wonderful adventures of a pair of lovers and their friends in various parts of the known world, in Hades, and elsewhere. The Babyloniaca, written between 166 and 180 A. D. by a Hellenized Syrian, Iamblichus, told of a series of adventures that befell the beautiful Sinonis and her beloved husband, Rhodanes, on account of the love of Garmus, the widowed king of Babylon, for Sinonis. In the end Rhodanes, after having been crucified by Garmus, won his wife and became king of Babylon. There seems to have been some attempt to represent character in this novel. The Ephesian Tales, written in the third century after Christ by Xenophon of Ephesus and preserved to us entire, tell in five books the adventures of the beautiful Habrocomes of Ephesus and his fair bride, Anthea, who are separated soon after their marriage, are captured by various pirates and others, and travel about the world with varying fortunes, until they are finally reunited at Rhodes.

Heliodorus of Emesa, in Phoenicia, wrote in the third century after Christ the longest and most important of the