\ \ RA — \ t | . i ) Vrs AKC ON . AS NY ~ SAWa) VN SX Qs, yt WS aN WEA co Wee ~ yew \ ~ # S\ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN I89I BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Date Due Cornell University Library PA 4231.A5S54 wii 924 026 674 915 am 3 1 4h SECOND-CENTURY SATIRIST; OR, eee ek. [3/s(os. Weth the Compliments of Winthrop Dp Teil Girard Colle ge, Fhiladelphia. ~YWRIVE EEN WUE OMI LIN Lee DREXEL BIDDLE, PUBLISHER, PHILADELPHIA, SAN FRANCISCO. 1901. A SECOND-CENTURY SATIRIST; OR, DIALOGUES AND STORIES FROM LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA: The sage who laughed the world away, Who mocked at gods and men and care; More sweet of voice than Rabelais, And lighter-hearted than Voltaire. A. Lana. TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY WINTHROP DUDLEY SHELDON, LL.D. DREXEL BIDDLE, PUBLISHER, PHILADELPHIA, SAN FRANCISCO. Igol. A. \9] Set Copyright, 1901, By DREXEL BIDDLE. (All rights reserved.) PRINTED BY DREXEL BIDDLE, PHILADELPHIA, LONDON. PREFACE. Tae following translation contains nearly all of Lucian’s more important and interesting dialogues. The best of the ‘“‘Dialogues of the Gods’ and of the ‘Dialogues of the Dead,’’ have been included, enough to illustrate fully the character of these light and grace- ful productions, which have found not a few modern imitators. The ‘‘Dialogues of the Dead’’ have been grouped according to their leading characters, Diogenes, Charon, etc. The Greek text chosen is that of Jacobitz, and for convenience of reference the numbering of the sections in the original Greek has been retained in the translation. It is the aim of the Introduction to give an account of Lucian’s life and also of his times, so far as they throw light upon his career, together with a brief résumé of such of his writings as do not appear in these pages. In preparing it, the admirable and appreciative essay of M. Maurice Croiset' has been freely consulted. Lucian abounds in mythological, archsological, lit- erary, historical and biographical allusions. The Notes are intended to supply such information as the general reader, as well as the student of Greek, may require, in order to understand them. Much of the material of the Notes has been drawn from the standard authorities upon classical biography and mythology. And some valuable suggestions have been derived from several of the current editions of selections in the Greek for school use, especially from that of Professor Charles R. Williams. The translator has endeavored to reproduce the precise thought of the original in clear, fluent, 1 Essai sur La Vie et Les Oeuvres de Lucien: Paris, 1882, iv PREFACE. idiomatic English, and at the same time to preserve, so far as may be possible in passing from one language into another, the genuine spirit and life, the “bouquet” of Lucian himself. It isnot always the high- est praise, to say of a translation, that it reads as if ‘‘to the manner born,”’ with no suggestion of the language from which it was made. A slight ‘‘brogue,’’ so to speak, a dash now and then of the ‘‘foreign accent,”’ adds, if anything, to its charm, bringing the reader into closer touch with the author. In his Essays and Studies the distinguished Greek scholar, Dr, Basil L. Gildersleeve, says of our author: “Of all the Greek writers of the "Empire Lucian pre- sents the most fascinating problems to the student of history. NotPlutarch, . . . not Antoninus, gives us half so much to think about, gives us half 50 many glimpses of that world which lived such a varied life, which moved under the impulse of such a com- plex of forces. . While Lucian is especially inter- esting to the Greek scholar, there are but few of his pieces that are interesting only to the Greek scholar. There are not many ancient authors that re- tain for modera times so much of their essential oil.’’ D. 8. CONTENTS. PAGE I.—LUCIAN—THE MAN AND THE AUTHOR.......ceeee 9 Il.—SATIRES UPON THE PAGAN OLYMPUS: 1, DIALOGUES OF THE GODS: Bros and Zeus (2.)..cescccsssccssccvevcvccsesccssevesess OG Zeus and Ganymedes (4.)..-s:ecceseccsccscccscccessess 60 Heré and Zeus (5.)...... covece ncccceereccnsesccccsese OD Hephaestus and Apollo (7.)....e.sscccceccccvecsscsesess 65 Zeus, Asclepius and Heracles (18.)..-.ceccovcsscesccseee 67 Heré and Leto (16.)..........000 Pee epeMeswree ves sncees: OS Aphrodité and Eros (19.)....ceeesceccccessseccveccseses 70 The Judgment of Paris (20.)...ceecessccoeccccceevcccses I Ares and Hermes (21.)....sccccsccececceces cocsccceece 82 Hermes and Maia (24)... ..ccseccccccserccvccccsscessses 88 Zous and Helios (25.)...csccescccscccscccevccccsccsscss OO 2. DIALOGUES OF THE 8EA-GODS. Cyclops and Poseidon (2.)....scccsesscccvcssccenccciess BF Poseidon and Alpheus (8.)..-csescesecsecccssceseserees 89 Panopé and Galené (5.)...+..ccccecccccsrecsccvoesceces 90 Doris and Thetis (12.)......scsscccrecvescccvcveseeeses OL Zephyrus and Notus (15.).....sccseecccccccccevccesesees 92 8. THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS ...csccsccesceccccencseeces 95 4, ZnUs IN HEROICS......... tia “ibsa/ere Heee av smeany se aeeeewe 106 IIL—SATIRES UPON HUMAN LIFE AND SOCIETY : 1, DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD: Diogenes and Polydeuces (1.)......0+++ sibioia ia niahelsis asebiniae ke Diogenes and Heracles (16.)...... a aihie ie wince 0s ¥ Sarwar woos 145 Diogenes and Mausolus (24.).......s+.05 fesse savoveces: 148 vi. CONTENTS. PAGE Diogenes, Antisthenes and Crates (27)......ececsecceeees 149 Hermes and Charon (4.),..sseesscccscecccvesvssccerces 153 Charon, Hermes and Divers Dead (10.).....eeseseeeeoees 155 Charon and Menippus (22.)..seccecscsreccccscceceseces 160 Pluto versus Menippus (2.)..csscccssccssccseccccereccee 162 Menippus and Hermes (18.)....cscessccssccecevsceserse 164 Menippus and Aacus (20.),.....cccsccecsccseccscccress 165 Menippus and Cerberus (21.)......... siasasnacweeeess JCD Nireus, Thersites and Menippus (25.),........ cvcccccece AGL 2. THE FERRY OVER THE STYX; OR, THE TYRANT........+6+ 173 3. THE DREAM; OR, THE COOK......ceeceeseoces svanslstevaherand. 6 194 4. CHARON; OR, SEEING THE SIGHTS... .ccccsseseesuceeeers 222 5. Timon ; oR, THE MISANTHROPE..........-. oy aiasteralneiees 243 6. THE PARASITE ; OR, PARASITISM CONSIDERED AS AN ART 279 %. CONCERNING SALARIED COMPANIONS. .....0..c0eceeeeees 311 IV._SATIRES UPON THE PHILOSOPHERS: 1. MeNnIPrUs IN THE ROLE oF IcaRUs; OR, ABOVE THE CLOUDS,...... siieteia aah apatreenel ete Sead sie's a haaecllased aun eeeeeen’ 346 2. THE BANQUET ; OR, THE LAPITHAL...cecccsccceccccenese OIA 3. THE AUCTION OF PHILOSOPHERS........0005 teeeeescesee O99 4, THE ANGLER ; OR, THE RESURRECTION..... .c.cceececes 421 APPENDIX J.—The Choice of Heracles.—Prodicus,......se0e++ 457 APPENDIX II.—The Peregrinus, §§ 11-18.......cceessseecsees 461 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. L LUCIAN—THE MAN AND THE AUTHOR. Amon the literary men of the Second Century by far the most striking figure is Lucian, of Samosata. Liv- ing in the post-classical period, when there were few men of mark in the realm of letters, and obscured by the monotonous mediocrity about him, he has received much less attention than his intrinsic merits and his in- fluence upon modern literature would warrant. His writings more than those of any other author, reflect with startling vividness the characteristic phases of the social and intellectual life of that, in many respects, memorable time; and such is their abounding wit and humor and sparkling style, together with the tempera- ment of the man himself, that he has been called the Swift or Voltaire, the Rabelais or Heine of that day. Singularly unlike every one of them, yet he has enough in common with each, to suggest, if not to fully justify, the comparison. He wasa kindred spirit with Aris- tophanes, whose successor he was in the direct line of literary descent; and no writer of antiquity has so dis- tinctively a modern flavor and such a close affinity with the spirit and temper of the life of to-day. With wide knowledge and experience of the world, a shrewd and penetrating observer, with a highly poetic nature and fertile imagination, skillful in the delineation of char- acter and of rare dramatic power, endowed with gifts of wit and satire seldom equalled in literature with which to smite the shams and follies of the day, and, withal, a man of independence and courage, he would have little difficulty in becoming naturalized in this century. Here and now he would find as varied and 10 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. congenial a field for the exercise of his special talent; for in many of its characteristic tendencies and types of thought and life, the age in which he lived had much in common with the present. For several centuries after his death he seems to have been ignored by pagan writers, who saw their own tra- ditions day by day losing ground and naturally enough entertained no friendly feeling toward one in whose writings their adversaries had found an arsenal of weapons. This may possibly account for the silence of Philostratus in his Lives of the Sophists. As for the representatives of Christianity, they could well avail themselves of the ammunition he had put into their hands; but one can readily understand why it was im- possible for them to show any sympathy with his essen- tial tendencies. In the middle ages Christianity, now become the arbiter of pagan reputations, regarded him with aversion as an Epicurean and an unbeliever who, it was claimed, had spoken irreverently of the ‘‘faith.”’ At the same time it approved the satirist who had turned the Olympian gods into derision, and also accepted with favor certain sentiments of the moralist, especially his habit of estimating the good things of this life from the point of view of death. In like manner the Byzantine scholiasts, taking counsel of prejudice and misconcep- tion, rather than of fact, described him as an atheist, a liar, and a blasphemer and even an apostate! from Chris- tianity. They studied him, however, and sought to profit by whatever excellences he seemed to them to pos- sess. The imitations which have come down to us, of some of his dialogues, attest how much his works were at that time read and admired. It is, however, from the Renaissance that the wider influence of Lucian dates. It was then that he began to receivea juster and more generous appreciation. The list isa long one of those writers who during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were indebted to him. Erasmus is worthy of special mention. He not only translated into Latin a number of Lucian’s writings, but, what is more, he proved himself in his own works the heir of his spirit. 1 The charge that he was an apostate Christian was based upon the Philopatris, A rreet now recognized as not Lucian’s at all, but belonging to a much later A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 11 BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY LIFE. For the materials of his biography we have to depend almost exclusively upon the incidental and scanty allu- sions contained in his own writings.” From these, however, it is possible to determine the general outlines of his life and with a good degree of accuracy what manner of man he was. The date of Lucian’s birth is uncertain, but probably was not later than 125 a.p. There are some considera- tions which it is not necessary to enlarge upon here, that are thought to indicate the year 120 as, perhaps, the more likely date, unless we agree with M. Croiset that the Hermotimus, written when Lucian was forty years’ old, was composed in 165. His death probably took place about the year 200, so that his life very nearly spanned that most remarkable period in the his- tory of the Empire, the Age of the Antonines, covering the reigns of Hadrian, the versatile cosmopolitan, the unaffected, just and kindly Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, the consummate flower of Stoic philosophy, the cruel Commodus, and the earlier years of the strong, but unscrupulous Septimius Severus. Samosata, his native town, was a Syrian city of con- siderable size and strongly fortified, upon the western bank of the upper Euphrates, and the ancient capital of the kingdom of Commagené. It was in the midst of a small, but rich district, and owed its importance to the fact, that it commanded one of the principal passages of the river and was, therefore a leading thoroughfare for communication with Central Asia. Its ancient 2 Such ancient writéts as refer to him at all hardly more than mention his name, with some of his*writings. The work which passes under the name of Suidas, but of a very much later date than Lucian, says he ‘was called a blas- phemer or slanderer, because in his dialogues he maintains that the stories told about the gods are ridiculous. He was born in the time of the Emperor Trajan, or somewhat earlier. He was once an advocate in Antioch of Syria, but making a failure of it, he turned his attention to writing speeches for others to deliver, and composed no end of things. The story is that he was killed by dogs, because he raged against the truth, for in his life of Peregrinus (See Appen IL.) he attacked Christianity and blasphemed the very Christ—blackguard that he was. Therefore also for his fury he paid penalties enough in the present world; and in the world to come he will be heir of everlasting fire with Satan.” The few glimpses we have of his early history are given in the Dream, which probably served as an introduction to a course of Tpadings before his fellow- townsmeniof Samosata, whither he had returned, when about forty years of age, after a long sojourn in foreign lands. 3 The Hermotimus, 13, 12 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. name survives in the modern Sempsat, or Samisat. While its population remained essentially Syrian, it no doubt was powerfully affected by the wave of Greek in- fluence which was set in motion toward the east in the latter half of the fourth century B.c. by the conquests of Alexander the Great, and which under the Seleucidae, kings of Antioch, to whom Samosata was long tribu- tary, continued to rise higher and higher, until Syria had become substantially Hellenized, even before it fell under Roman rule. Commagené was made a province of the Empire in the year 18 B.c. and remained such until a.p. 38, when Caligula restored it to Antiochus Epiphanes, a prince of the ancient royal family, who was, however, deposed by Vespasian in 72, from which time the district was governed as a Roman province. Samosata was long garrisoned by a legion of Syrian troops as an outpost against the Parthians. Its people were of the same stock as the Phoenicians and Hebrews, and it was one of the few towns that retained their native names after the Macedonian domination had become fully established. The native religious cultus had not been superseded by the Greek, but outwardly at least had become assimilated to it, adopting side by side with its own the corresponding names of the Greek deities. Like hiscountrymen in general, Lucian seems never to have been ashamed of his Syrian birth. He mentions it several times‘ and apparently with consid- erable self-satisfaction. or his self-love was flattered, as he reflected upon the contrast between the culture and distinction he attained in his later years and his humble origin in remote Samosata, among a people who had never cultivated in any true sense science, art, or philos- ophy even in their chief city of Antioch, and who in all the centuries of Greek influence had never furnished another so notable a name in Greek literature. Syrians were everywhere throughout the Roman Empire, but they were known as jockeys and actors, flute players, street musicians and ballet dancers, wrestlers and box- ers, buffoons and jugglers. Less than two hundred miles from the populous, busy, 4 The Double Indictment, 25, 27; the How to Write Hist 24; the 4 19; the Scythian, 9. a ee eee oe A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 13 splendid and luxurious Antioch and on the highway be- tween Asia Minor and the Hast, Lucian’s native town was affected, at least in the larger outlines of its life, by the intellectual activity that prevailed in the cities of fonia. The Greek schoolmaster was no stranger in Samosata; and doubtless the usual school privileges found in the larger towns to the westward were to be had. there, furnishing the youth with a knowledge of reading, writing, and counting, and including some- thing mmar and literature, music and gymnastics, geography, drawing, and geometry. Lucian’s parents were worthy working people of small means, fairly intelligent and of good common sense, with the honorable ambition to bring up their son to some regular employment by which he could gain an honest living. His mother was daughter of a statuary and had two brothers who followed the same calling. Lucian was sent to school, probably at quite an early age, and continued there until his sixteenth or seven- teenth year. From a study of his manhood, coupled with one or two facts we know of his early years, we may reasonably infer that he was neither a dull, nor a precocious scholar, but a genuine, healthy boy of exu- berant life, spinning his top, playing ball or other games with the best of them, a leader among his fellows, an honest, thoughtful, manly boy, quick-witted, enterpris- ing and persevering, with a dash of playful mischief and a mind of his own, and not always occupied with the studies of the school curriculum. Lucian himself gives us one incident of his school days, which, trifling though it was, throws some light upon them and, as we shall see, came very near shaping his future career. He tells us that when the daily school session was over he used to amuse himself, notwithstanding the beating he got for it from his teachers, with scraping off the wax from his writing tablets and skillfully fashioning it into cattle, horses, and even men. In these early years he obtained a fair knowledge of the Greek language, corrupted indeed into a provincial patois by contact with the native Syrian, but the basis of the skill and grace with which he came to use it after- ward; and no doubt the seed was then sown, which, 14 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. under the culture of later life and more favorable sur- roundings, ripened into that wide familiarity with the masterpieces of Greek literature which his works illus- trate. HIS APPRENTICESHIP AS A STATUARY. But at last his school days were over, and the same grave problem that so often puzzles modern parents, forced itself upon the father and mother of this bright, active, aspiring youth—what should they put him to? In their perplexity they took counsel with their family friends. He had been kept in school longer probably than was usual with the youth of Samosata, and at this gathering it was suggested that he be given a liberal edu- cation. But most of those present regarded this as out of the question. It would require too much time and an expense far beyond his parents’ means. Moreover, the self-reliant youth seems to have had some notions himself about the matter. If he should master a trade, he would probably be able to get his living out of it and thus be no longer dependent upon his parents, and he could gladden their hearts by repaying them from his wages. Then as one and another suggested some em- ployment for consideration, the father bethought him- self of his son’s penchant for moulding wax figures, of which he reminded the company; and turning to one of the uncles of the boy, a stone mason and Hermae- carver’ of some reputation, he said to him: ‘‘It isn’t right that he should learn any other trade. So take the youth under your care and train him to be a good work- man in stone and in carving statues.’? All agreed that this was the thing to be done and expressed their confi- dent anticipations of the boy’s ultimate success. Accordingly on the appointed day Lucian began work in his uncle’s shop, well-pleased on the whole at the turn affairs had taken, for now he would have an op- portunity to show off before his mates, as they watched him with envious eyes, while he carved gods and made rangular pedestal, tho total height being about ther of a tose tee ee to mark boundaries and were set up before houses, temples and tombs and in gymnasia, palsostree, libraries and porticoes, also at the corners of streets and on the high roads as sign posts, with distances inscribed upon them and some- times moral verses. A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 15 statuettes. But his elation was short-lived, for his very first lesson shattered the hopes of both himself and his friends, though in after years he must have regarded its issue as almost a prophecy of what was to be his future career. His uncle, placing a chisel in his hand, set him at work upon a slab of marble, with the caution to be careful about striking it too hard, encouraging him with the old saw, ‘‘Well begun is half-done,’? which has seen service since, at least, the days of Hesiod. From lack of skill, or in his youthful impetuosity he brought the chisel down too hard; and alas! the slab was broken. His uncle flew into a passion at the clumsi- ness of his apprentice, and seizing a stick which hap- pened to be conveniently near, initiated him into his art, as Lucian says, in no gentle or persuasive fashion. His illusion thus rudely dispelled, the boy dropped his chisel and ran home crying, to his mother’s protecting aegis. Into her sympathizing ears he poured the story of the treatment he had received and showed her his bruises, protesting that it was all owing to his uncle’s jealousy of his promising talents. His mother naturally took the affair greatly to heart and bitterly upbraided her brother for his harshness. That night the high- spirited youth sobbed himself into a troubled sleep, anon awaking to brood over what had happened. As he slept, a wonderful vision, he tells us, came to him, which made such a vivid impression upon his mind, that he professes to have remembered it more than twenty years later in the minutest particulars, for it marked the turning point in his life. Jt is not improb- able that he really did have a vision, in some of its essential features the same, though not so highly colored, as he afterward described it to the wondering listeners of Samosata. For we must remember that he lived in an age of dreams and was himself endowed with much of the lively imagination of his native orient, which, wrought upon by the excitement of be- ginning his new work and by the tragic events of the day, not unnaturally conjured up before his mind the ‘baseless fabric of a vision.’’ It is fairtoassume from the qualities of character and mind shown in his later career, that as he approached manhood he had not 16 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. looked forward with unmixed satisfaction to spending his days in Samosata in the irksome, monotonous round of some mechanical trade. Glimpses had come to him of that outer world to the westward, full of movement and intellectual activity in philosophy and the rhetor- ical art. Occasionally the sophists and rhetoricians in their travels had visited his native town to give their courses of lectures, just as he himself did many years afterward, and perhaps had drawn around them some of the youth of his own acquaintance. All this no doubt had awakened within him vague impulses and aspirations for something better, which only failed to take definite form because of the poverty of his home, and had been cheerfully put aside in obedience to his parents’ wishes. The sudden and tragic issue of hig first attempt at learning a trade now forced these old=.. time yearnings more distinctly upon his attention, and he could not endure to go back again into his uncle’s studio. Thus the precise conditions were at hand, which might naturally be expected to supply the basis for such a vision as he describes. THE DREAM. Two women seized hold of him by his hands, each striving with might and main to get possession of him, so that in their mutual rivalry he was almost torn asunder; and meanwhile they angrily disputed each other’s claims. The one was a muscular, masculine looking woman, the ‘‘horny-handed”’ daughter of toil, her hair unkempt and slovenly, her dress suited to her, occupation; and she was covered with the dust and dirt of the atelier, like his uncle, when polishing the marbles. But the other was beautiful to look upon, of handsome figure and tastefully and elegantly dressed. At last, wearied out, each makes her appeal to the youth himself to decide with which he would cast in his lot. The masculine one speaks first :° “* «TJ, my dear child, am the Art of Sculpture, which yesterday you began to learn—a near friend of yours, and also one of your own kith and kin on your mother’s side. For your grandfather’—speaking the name of § The Dream, 7, 8 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 17 my mother’s father—‘was a marble-mason, and your two uncles are both very famous through me. If you are willing to eschew the stuff and nonsense which pro- ceed from this one’—pointing to the other—‘and to be my companion and dwell with me, first of all you will grow up manly and have the shoulders of an athlete, and you will not be exposed to any jealousy and will never leave your own country and kin and go away to a foreign land, nor will all applaud you for mere words. Don’t be disgusted at the shabbiness of my looks or the squalor of my dress. For it was with no better start than this that the famous Phidias’ came to portray Zeus to the life and Polyclitus executed his statue of Heré and Myron won golden opinions and Praxiteles was:admired. Indeed, these men are reverenced along with their gods. If now you should become one of them, you will assuredly be thought famous yourself among all men; you will make your father, too, an object of envy and render your country also the admi- ration of all beholders.’ This and yet more Sculpture said, stuttering much and speaking gibberish for the most part, stringing her words together with great urgency and trying hard to win me over. But Ino longer remember it, for the most that she said at once escaped my memory. When, however, she finished speaking, the other began substantially as follows:s “¢ “J, my child, am Culture, already an intimate ac- quaintance of yours, though as yet you have not made full proof of me. This woman has stated in advance what great benefits you will procure for yourself by be- coming a marble-mason. Nay, you will be nothing but 7 Phidias: (490-432 B.C.) The most celebrated of Greek sculptors. His mas- terpiece, perhaps, was the statue of Zeus, referred to in the text, executed in gold and ivory for the temple at Olympia. The god was represented as seated upon a magnificent throne; his head bore a wreath of olive; in his right hand he held a statue of victory, in his left a sceptre surmounted by an eagle. Including the pedestal the statue was over fifty feet high. Polyclitus (452-412 B. C.) was a famous statuary in both bronze and marble. The statue of Her6, wife of Zeus, referred to in the text, was made in gold and ivory for a temple of hers near Argos. Myron (born about 480 B. C.), an artist in bronze, was especially famous for animal pieces, of which the ‘‘Cow” was the most celebrated. A work of higher art was his Discobolus, or quoit-thrower. Praxiteles (about 390 B. C.) especially excelled in representing the softer beauties and graces of the human form, His most important work was the statue of cea which the people of Cnidus regarded as such a treasure that on no account would they part with it. ® The Dream, 9-18. 18 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. a workman, toiling with your body and having invested in this toil absolutely all your life’s hope, obscure your- self, receiving small and mean wages, dejected in mind and making a sorry show when you appear in public, neither much sought after by friends, nor feared by enemies, nor an object of envy to your fellow-citizens, but a mere workman and nothing more, one of the com- mon herd, all your life long cowering before your superior and paying court to him who can talk, leading a hare’s life, and a prize for every one stronger than yourself. But suppose you should become even a Phidias or a Polyclitus and should execute many ad- mirable works, all will praise your skill, but not one of those who look on, if he is in his senses, would wish to become like you. However good a sculptor you may be, you will be regarded as a mechanic and artisan and as one who lives by the work of his hands. “But if you obey me, I will in the first place show you many things that men of old have wrought; I will relate their wonderful.doings and sayings and make you acquainted with almost everything; and your soul —that which is the supreme element of your being—I will adorn with many goodly ornaments, with self- control, righteousness, piety and gentleness, with sweet reasonableness, mother-wit, and patient endurance, and with the love of the beautiful and the impulse toward what is most noble. For these qualities are in very truth the soul’s chaste adorning. Nothing pertaining to the past shall escape your notice, nor aught that is to happen in the present; nay more, in my company you will foresee even the future; in a word, all things that exist, both divine and human, I will soon teach ou. ** “You who just now were poor, the son of What’s- his-name, and had resolved on so mean a, trade, will after a little be emulated and envied by all, honored and applauded and held in esteem for your most excel- lent talents and admired by those eminent for birth or wealth. You will wear such clothing as I do’-—with this she pointed to her own apparel, for she was dressed with very great elegance—‘and you will be thought A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 19 worthy of a place in the civil service’ and of a reserved seat” at the theater. “© “And if perchance you visit foreign parts, you will not be unknown or unnoticed even ina strange land. Such are the marksI shall bestow upon you, that every- body who sees you will call his neighbor’s attention to you and point you out with his finger, saying: ‘There he is, yonder!’ And if any calamity befall either your friends or even the community at large, all will look to you for relief. Should you chance somewhere to say something, the multitude will listen with open mouths, admiring and congratulating you for your ability asa speaker and your father on account of his prodigy of a son. The common saying that some forsooth are made even immortal who once were human beings, I will bring to pass in your case. For even if you yourself depart out of the world, never will you cease associat- ing with the cultured and holding intercourse with the best. You see the illustrious Demosthenes"—whose son he was, and how great I made him. You see the well- known A’schines, who was son of a kettle-drummer; but nevertheless on my account Philip paid court to him. And Socrates,” himself also bred in the sculp- tor’s art, as soon as he came to know what was better and, running away from her, deserted to me—you hear how his praises are sounded by all. “** «But if you pay no regard to such great and distin- guished men themselves, to brilliant deeds, sublime dis- ® Civil service: Under the Antonines scholars were often appointed to office. Lucian himself was given—probably by Commodus—a position in connection with the courts in Egypt. 10 Reserved seat: It was an old Athenian custom to assign the front tiers of seats in the theatre to members of the Council and to generals, archons, priests, foreign ambassadors and other distinguished persons. These seats were gener ally more elaborate, e. g., the armchairs of |Pentelic marble, in the theatre of Dionysus at Athens, 11 Demosthenes was son of a manufacturer of arms, cutlery and furniture. ischines, his famous rival, was son of Leucothea, the kettle drummer (De Coronct, 284). His mother is said to have been a priestess in the foreign religious cults, whose secret rites, not of a reputable character, were quite popular in Greece. The kettle-drum was used in the wild orgies of these occasions. Philip TI. of Macedon treated Auschines with distinguished consideration and gave him landed property. 12 Socrates was son of the sculptor, Sophroniscus, and in his youth, according to Grote, followed his father’s occupation and executed various works, among them a group of the Graces, which Pausanias of the second century A. D. speaks of as in his day still to be seen upon the ae It is at least doubtful whether he devoted himself to sculpture long enough to attain any such skill as this would indicate. 20 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. course and elegance of mien, to honor, glory and praise and opportunities for civic preferment, power and office, to reputation for eloquence and to compliments upon one’s intelligence, it will be your lot to put on a dirty frock and assume a bearing befitting a slave; in your hands you will have crowbars, knives, chisels and grav- ing tools; your body will be bowed down to your work and you will grovel in the dust, be of low estate and in every way abject, never lifting up your head or having any thought worthy of aman or of afreeman. Nay, while you take thought beforehand to have your carved work well-proportioned and full of grace, you will con- cern yourself least as to how you personally shall be symmetrical and well-ordered, but will render yourself more ignoble than your blocks of stone.’ ““While she was still talking in this strain, I rose up without awaiting the conclusion of her appeal, and made known my decision; and forsaking yonder be- grimed workwoman, I cast in my lot with Culture very joyfully, especially as the cudgel came into my mind and the thought that yesterday at the very begin- ning the former had caused not a few blows to be given me. But she who had been abandoned, in the first place was angry, smote her hands together and gnashed her teeth, and at last, just as we hear was Niobé’s™ fate, she became rigid and turned into stone. Well, if she did have an improbable experience, don’t be incred- ulous, for wonder-working is characteristic of dreams. ‘‘But the other woman looked at me and said: ‘Rest assured I shall reward you for this decision, because you have decided the matter rightly. Come, then, at once! Mount upon this chariot’—pointing to a sort of car which had a kind of winged coursers like unto the Pegasus—‘in order that you may see what great things you were sure to remain ignorant of, had you not fol- lowed me.’ 18 Niobé, wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, was so proud of her seven sons and as ren ae eo that she presumed to regard herself as superior to Leto, who had only two, Apollo and Artemis, and forbade the Thebans to sacrifice to Leto, This so angered Apollo and Artemis that they slew them all. In her grief Niob6é returned home to her father, Tantalus, king of Lydia. Here on Mount Pang ias We Beds Chaneed, her {nie aoe uch al ie summer-time shed ars. e legend was a favorite subject in art, e.g., the famous Niobé i the gallery of the Uffizi in Florence, ; nee a ic A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 21 ‘“When I had mounted, she held the reins and drove; and ascending on high, I began with the east and from there as far as the extreme west took a survey of cities, nations, and hamlets, while I sowed something upon the earth exactly as Triptolemus“ did. Just now, though, I do not remember what it was that I scattered, but this circumstance only, that the men above whom I chanced to soar kept applauding, as they looked up from below, and attended me on my way with words of good augury. My companion, after showing me so many things and pointing me out to those who saluted us with their ac- clamations, conducted me back again, no longer clad in that dress, which I had when I started on my aérial voyage, but I fancied I was returning home something of a grandee. Then, too, when she met with my father who stood awaiting us, she showed him that beautiful costume and in what glory I had come back, and also gave him a gentle reminder of the plans concerning me which he came within an ace of consummating. I re- member having seen these things when I was but just past boyhood, greatly troubled in mind, I imagined, because of the fear excited by the flogging.”’ In this graphic description, stripped of its poetic garb, we can discover that there was a critical moment in Lucian’s early life, when like Heracles in the famous Choice™ described by Prodicus, he stood at the parting of two ways and must choose either to walk in the humble path which his ancestors had trod for generations, or yield to those inner promptings, which told him there was something, though as yet he knew not what it was, higher and better for him to do in the world, than turn- ing out Herme all his days ina little shop on a nar- row, dirty lane of Samosata. A STUDENT OF RHETORIC IN IONIA. The next day after this night of dreaming we may be sure he did not return to his apprenticeship. He had 14 Triptolemus, son of Celeus, king of Eleusis, commissioned by Demeter, the atron goddess of agriculture, traveled above the earth in a chariot with winged Ariane and scattered grain seed, thus disseminating the knowledge of agri- culture. See Ovid, Fasti 4, 507-576. 18 The Choice of Heracles: See Appendix I. No doubt Lucian modelled the story of his dream upon the allegory of Prodicus. 22 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. made up his mind to that, and doubtless his mother sustained him in it. Unfortunately he has not told us what was the immediate sequel to the affair. But it is quite unlikely that he left home at once on those travels, which occupied most of the succeeding twenty or twenty-five years. Probably he remained for awhile longer in Samosata, either waiting for something to turn up, or going back for a season to his studies, pos- sibly under the brief tuition of some traveling sophist or rhetorician, who, finding him a capable pupil, may have fired the imagination of the youth by stories of the attractions and opportunities of the cities of Ionia. When next we hear of him he is wandering from place to place in western Asia Minor, intent upon fitting himself to be a rhetorician.* How he obtained the means to do this he doesnot tell us. But from the pov- erty of his parents he had to depend upon himself and hence must have had a hard struggle, from which, how- ever, he did not flinch. A mere stripling less than twenty years of age, he sets forth from home to win his way in the world, staff in hand—for he must travel mainly on foot—clad in a coarse Median doublet after the Syrian fashion and betraying his origin by the mongrel provincial dialect of his native district, but with a certain natural buoyancy of spirits, though he was ignorant of what the future had in store for him. For several years he roamed from place to place, gain- ing a somewhat precarious livelihood. and meanwhile preparing himself for the profession of ‘rhetor,’ which he may perhaps have definitely decided upon before leaving home, but more likely after he came to breathe the more stimulating intellectual atmosphere of the great Ionian cities. Here rhetoric, at that time the equivalent of our higher, or liberal, education, was sed- ulously cultivated at all the great centers, especially at Smyrna, Ephesus, and Pergamus, whither Scopelianus, Polemon, Aristocles, Aristides and others of almost equal celebrity attracted disciples from all over Asia Minor, Pheenicia, and even from Egypt. To use the 16 The Double Indictment, 27. A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 23 expression of Philostratus,” all Ionia was a kind of grand philosophical or rhetorical school, so universal was the enthusiasm for these studies. The very air was full of them; and no wonder that Lucian, ardent, imaginative, ambitious, conscious in some measure of his own powers and attracted by the emoluments of fame and fortune which such a career offered, gave himself up to the pro- fession of rhetoric with a singleness of devotion, which he is fond of representing in the guise of a lover’s pas- sion for his betrothed. ‘‘He bowed down to her; to her he paid court, and she was the sole object of his wor- ship.’’* It is scarcely probable that Lucian was a pupil of the more distinguished teachers like those mentioned above, else he would have given us some intimation of the fact. He was too poor to pay the large fees that they exacted, and so he had to content himself with instructors of less repute. Aside from the technique of the art and the practice which he received under their direction, he was probably more indebted for his education to his own in- dividual efforts and to his close study of the accepted models of classic style. Whatever guidance he re- ceived, be it little or much, seems to have developed in a natural way what was in the young man himself. The passion for public speaking was even more com- mon then than now. It was an age of declamation and endless talk; and the primary purpose of a liberal edu- cation was to qualify a person to plead in the courts, write orations for others to deliver, pronounce show dis- courses, or to be a professional lecturer or teacher from the platform. Rhetorical masters were everywhere, some of them no doubt of well-deserved distinction, but the most, encouraging by their instructions the super- ficial, sensational, and affected style of discourse common in that age. We may picture Lucian as diligently occupied for the next few years in the study of the Greek language and literature, reading Homer and the other poets, and Demosthenes and the orators, listening to his teacher’s illustrations and explanations of them and practicing 17 Lives of the Sophists, I, 21, III. edition Kayser: HAGNS tHS Iwvtas oiov MovGetov mex odrcuerys (Croiset). 18 The Double Indictment, 27. 24 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. the technical methods of oral and written expression. And incidentally he is storing his retentive memory with much of the material of discourse, with history and myth and literary allusion, and with a smattering perhaps of ethics and philosophy. At this time also he must have made some study of jurisprudence with a view to becoming an advocate, though the statement of Suidas, that he practiced law in Antioch, is perhaps better referred toa later period of his life. Asa net result of his education thus far, he had acquired a fairly cultivated literary taste and a good degree of skill in the use of his adopted language and was now enrolled in the guild of rhetors and advocates, Meanwhile he had supported himself as best he could by the scanty earnings of such menial employments as offered them- selves. He was recognized as an unusually clever and diligent pupil and may have had the benefit of the gifts which rich scholars in those days often gave to the sophists, as in the case of Aristides and Adrianus, that their lectures might be made free to the poorer students. VISITS ATHENS AND OTHER PARTS OF GREECE. He tried his ’prentice hand for a brief season as traveling lecturer, advocate, and especially as a writer of speeches for others, first in Ionia, with sufficient suc- cess, it would seem, to give him some reputation and the means with which to realize his cherished desire to visit Greece. He tarried for some time in Athens, then the chief seat of university learning in the Empire, per- fecting himself especially in the Greek language at its very source and center, and pursuing further studies in literature, at the same time becoming imbued with the intellectual freedom and mobility which gave tone to the society of the place. In the exercise of his art he made excursions into various parts of Greece and for the first time was present at the Olympic games, per- haps the celebration of the year 145 A.D. ‘While in Athens he came into close contact with the philosophy of the day and no doubt gave the subject at least a superficial attention. Here he made the ac- quaintance of Nigrinus, a Platonist, with whom he afterward renewed his friendship in Rome, whither he A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 25 went, when about twenty-five years of age, to consult an oculist for an affection of the eyes, which had been steadily growing worse.” Nigrinus, according to Lucian’s testimony, appears to have been a man of singular attractiveness, as good as he was eloquent, who agreeably tempered the severity of his doctrines with a certain sweetness of character and sprightliness of spirit. It would seem that about this time Lucian was strongly drawn toward the teachings of philosophy, indeed came very near being converted to them.” In the “‘Hermotimus,’’ which professes to be a dialogue had with a Stoic philosopher when Lucian was about forty years of age,” he relates that about fifteen years before” a certain old man once and again discoursed to him of a blessed city whose inhabitants were altogether happy and of consummate wisdom, brave, just, and self- controlled, indeed hardly less than gods. He told him how things went on there. Nothing of the robbery, violence, and greed, so prevalent here, would he see there; but all its citizens live together in peace and harmony, free from all such things as gold, sensual pleasures, and ambition for glory, which breed strifes and eager rivalries, and leading a calm and perfectly happy life under good laws, with equality and freedom and all other blessings. The aged sage exhorted his youthful hearer to follow him hither, declaring that ‘the would himself lead the way and enroll him asa citizen upon his arrival, make him a member of his own tribe, and share with him the privileges of his brotherhood, that he might enjoy the common happi- ness.”’ It requires no stretch of the imagination to believe that this old man was none other than Nigrinus, whose amiable qualities, grace, and force of speech, sincerity, disinterestedness, elevation of thought and serenity of spirit appealed so powerfully at this time to Lucian’s impressionable nature, that he was almost persuaded to renounce the hopes and ambitions which he had cher- 19 The Nigrinus, 2. 20 The Nigrinus, 4, , 2} The Hermotimus, 13; TECTAPAKOVTOLTNS GyEsor. 22 The Hermotimus, 22-24: y po mevrenaidena 6xedor Era@Y, 26 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. ished hitherto. "When the philosopher ceased, his list- ener, under the spell of his words, continued for some time to gaze fixedly upon him. ‘‘His mind,”’ he tells us, ‘“‘was confused and distracted; his brain reeled; he was in a profuse sweat; be wished to speak, but could only stammer, and stopped short; his voice failed him; his tongue refused to articulate, and finally in utter per- plexity he burst into tears.’ The effect was too sudden and overwhelming to be permanent. A revulsion of feeling was sure to follow when he came to consider what a radical change in his purposes and plans of life was involved. He had been carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment, but not actually convinced. Young and full of anticipation for the future and encouraged by the success he had already won, he could not bring himself to resign the advan- tages which his profession promised him. Of this episode in his life Lucian years afterward said regret- fully: ‘‘In my youthful folly—for it was about fifteen years ago—I did not obey him, else already I might be in the very suburbs of the city, yea, at its gates.”’ Having accomplished the errand which had brought him to Rome, he returned to Greece, but only for a sea- son. He again was present at the Olympic games— perhaps in the year 149 A.D.—which seem to have had a peculiar attraction for him, furnishing in the multitude of people gathered there an unusual opportunity to ob- serve human life, of which Lucian was always an inter- ested and acute spectator, and for the sophists and rhetors to ply their trade. It was characteristic of the craft to travel from place to place. The very nature of their business demanded it. For the masses of the peo- ple their lectures took the place of books and of the modern newspaper, ministering to the universal passion of the time, to see and hear some new thing. Asia Minor set the fashion for the Empire, and the most emi- nent sophists and rhetors of Rome and the West were either natives of Lesser Asia, or had obtained their pro- fessional education in her schools. Like the rest of them Lucian drifted westward, as the place which prom- ised the largest rewards in fame and fortune. 33 The Nigrinus, 35, 24 The Hermotimus, 24, A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 27 HIS SOJOURN IN ITALY AND GAUL. Soon after his last mentioned visit at Olympia, he crossed the Ionian sea to Rome.” Here and in other parts of Italy he is believed to have spent several years. The satire which he afterward wrote Concerning Salaried Companions, in which he graphically por- trays the trials of a literary dependent in the family of a wealthy Roman, shows such an intimate acquaintance with life in Rome as could only have been gained dur- ing a somewhat prolonged residence. It is not necessary to suppose with some, that, having had a taste of the bondage himself, he wrote out of the fullness of his own experience. He was of too indepen- dent a spirit to submit to its degrading conditions, ex- cept under the direst necessity, and that necessity, he tells us, never came to him.” The Romans seem never to have stirred within him any sympathetic interest, The Mgrimus is for the most part a satire upon their vices and a contrast between the pomp and turmoil of life in Rome and the delightful repose and peace to be enjoyed at Athens. And in Salarved Companions he vividly describes the wealthy class as ‘“‘brilliant upon the outside and admired of all-.observers, but within, beneath the purple, covering up ever so much tragedy, out of which some Euripides or Sophocles could find abundant material for a drama.’’” A passage in his Excuse apropos of an Inadvertence an Salutation® seems to warrant the conclusion, that he was acquainted to some extent with Latin. It is quite probable that he was familiar with the works of Horace,” a man of congenial spirit; and he may have been better versed in Latin literature in general than he, as an adopted Greek, was willing to acknowledge. Of his life in Italy he gives us only one glimpse which indicates that he traveled in Cisalpine Gaul, per- haps when on his way to the Gaul beyond the Alps, de- livering lectures in the great cities as he proceeded. 25 The Double Indictment, 27. 28 Concerning Salaried Companions, 1. 37 Ibid, 41. 28 The Excuse, etc., 13: el ri ndy @ ris Pwpaiworv povys éxaivo. 29 In Timon, 22, occurs the same comparison, that Horace uses Gat. 2, 5), of a rich man besieged by legacy hunters, to a tunny fish. 28 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. He facetiously tells how years before*—probably in his boyhood days at Samosata—he had heard the familiar story of Phaéthon, the presumptuous son of Helios, and of his sister’s sad fate; and how he himself had then resolved, that, if he should ever visit northern Italy, he would make it a point to test the truth of the story. He goes on to say, that having gone there for another purpose—no doubt a professional one—he took the op- portunity to make inquiry; but the natives had never even heard of Phaéthon, and when, with mock credu- lity, he asked the boatmen as he sailed up the Po, when they would get to the poplars and the amber, they laughed and demanded to know what he meant. When he had related the story, how Phaéthon, losing control of his father’s chariot, permitted it to approach too near the earth, for which Zeus smote him with a flash of lightning and he fell into the river Po, while his sisters for their part in yoking the steeds to the chariot were changed into black poplars and their tears into amber, which ever afterward distilled from the leaves—the boatmen asked him ‘‘what deceiver and liar had told him that yarn and assured him that they had never seen any charioteer fall into the river, and as for the poplars he told about, they knew of none such.”’ After a sojourn of several years in Italy, Lucian turned his steps to southern Gaul, where he was to win his greatest triumphs in what may be termed the rhe- torical period of his career. Like Ionia Gaul was a paradise for the sophist and rhetor. Hellenism was the dominant element in the culture of the province, as might have been expected from the closer affinity of the Gallic with the Greek mind than with the Roman. The Gauls, like the Greeks, were of a sanguine, galvanic temperament, alert and quick-witted, fond of display and much given to a diffuse, ornate style of diction. Nowhere had the rhetorical art, as it was then prac- ticed, found a more congenial soil. Gaul was at that time the wealthiest province of the Empire, and the most famous seats of rhetoric and her handmaid, law, in: the west were at Lyons, Marseilles, Arles and Tou- louse, whither the most eminent professors of the day 80 Concerning Amber or Swans, 1 ff. A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 29 were attracted by the offer of large emoluments. Some of these schools were aided by subventions from the im- perial government. Lucian was well fitted by nature and attainments to succeed in such a field, and his suc- cess during his sojourn there is attested by the fact that he received a very large public salary” as a professional sophist or rhetor and was among the best paid of them all. He is thought to have spent ten years in Gaul,” during a large part of the time as professor of rhetoric and law at some one of the great schools mentioned above, perhaps at Lyons, which, according to Eusebius and Irenzeus, was especially famous at thattime. In his works, however, there is a singular dearth of refer- ences to his life among the Gauls and nothing to indi- cate what place was the principal seat of his profes- sional labors. The sole reminiscence of his residence there to be found in his writings is contained in the de- scription of the god Ogmius, whom he identifies with the Greek Heracles.* REVISITS SAMOSATA. In Gaul Lucian maintained the attitude of a for- eigner, devoting himself assiduously to his profession, winning applause and fortune, and that accomplished, glad to turn his face homeward. An accurate trans- cript of his own feelings at this time may be found in his Eulogium upon the Fatherland.* ‘‘No one,’’ he says, ‘‘is so unmindful of his native land, as to take no thought of her, when he is in a foreign city. Nay, even those who fare ill in foreign parts unceasingly declare, that their fatherland is the greatest of all blessings; while the prospered, even when they fare well in every other particular, regard it as their greatest deficiency, that they are away from home, living in a strange land. 51 The Apology, 15. £2 Some suppose that his sojourn in Gaul was interrupted by a visit to the Olympic games in 157. This seems quite unlikely, otherwise there would besome intimation of the fact. The supposition rests upon the statement in Peregrinus 35—according to which Lucian attended the Olympic games on four occasions, TE tTpaurs dn 6payv three of them before the death of Peregrinus, which, on the authority of Eusebius. has been assigned to 165. Perhaps, however, the announcement of his future self-immolation should be placed in that year, but the event itself in 169, This is the view of M. Croiset. 82 The Heracles. 34 The Hulogium on the Fatherland, 8, 30 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. For it is a reproach to live abroad. And they who dur- ing their absence have won renown, either on account of the acquisition of wealth, or the honorable reputation they have obtained, or because of their proved culture, or of their acknowledged valor—all such make haste to return to the fatherland, in order to exhibit their own fine accomplishments, where there are none to surpass them; and the greater the estimation he seems to have obtained with strangers, the more urgent is each one to reach his native country.”’ It is unlikely that Lucian had ever revisited Samosata since his departure, when a mere {stripling, having de- termined not to return until he had realized his ambi- tions. He was now possessed of a competency and his reputation was firmly established. It is not known pre- cisely by what route he journeyed from Gaul to the East,® but he arrived in lonia about the year 161 A.D. where he found the pamphleteers® of Ephesus and Smyrna discussing the Parthian war, which was then in progress upon the eastern frontier of the Empire. He was next in Antioch, whither Lucius Verus. the colleague of Marcus Aurelius, had come to take com- mand of the Roman forces. Here he delayed a while, until the issue of the campaign upon the Euphrates was clear, in the meantime, perhaps, doing some work as an advocate,” and amusing himself with writing the Por- traits and a Defense of the same, in the extravagant language of which he is supposed to describe the beau- tiful concubine of the Roman commander, who pre- ferred to linger among the charms of the Syrian capital, rather than take the field in person against the enemy. The year 163 finds Lucian at his old home, no doubt the object of wondering interest to his fellow-townsmen who saw him, whom they remembered only as an awkward, undisciplined youth, now transformed by study and experience of the world into an accomplished man of letters. Of course he was called upon to exhibit 85 Some suppose that he went by way of Macedonia, inferring this from a pas- sage in the Herodotus or Aétion, 7. But this piece is perhaps beteer associated with an excursion thither after his settlement in Athens, 380 The How to Write History, 14. 87 The statement of Suidas, that he had been an advocate in Antioch, is per haps better referred to this time, rather than, as is usually done, to the time immediately preceding Lucian’s first visit in Greece, when he was a young man, A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 31 his powers, which he was nothing loath to do, and gave a series of lectures or readings, prefaced by the Dream, in which he at once glorified his own successes and sought to stir the ambition of the young men of Samo- sata. HE DETERMINES TO SETTLE IN ATHENS. But Lucian could not be content to remain long in that Syrian town. There was nothing to detain him there, or to draw him hither again, except that it was the home of his parents, for whom he seems to have enter- tained a truly filial regard. No doubt he had already determined to settle in Athens, which of all the places he had visited offered him the most attractions. There the imperial authority was least obtrusive. The spirit of the place was hostile to the luxury and ostentation that prevailed in Rome and Gaul, and imposed a salu- tary restraint upon any who came hither inclined toa life of luxurious indulgence and display.* The noise and bustle of the great metropolis were wanting. A kindly frankness characterized the manners of the peo- ple. Hach lived as he pleased, respecting the liberty of others and undisturbed by their opinions. Each enjoyed a learned leisure, adorned with the taste for letters and art. Nowhere else in the Empire was there allowed so much of freedom in thought and speech. This calm and independence of life were especially agreeable to a man of Lucian’s type. His own literary instincts were in accord with the moral and intellectual temperament of its people. They possessed a fineness of the critical sense which led the most distinguished litterateurs of the time to render homage to their authority by solicit- ing their suffrages. They were qualified by their native sprightliness and mobility of mind, to appreciate what was brilliant and clever, and at once to perceive the ridiculous. No doubt Athens was much the same in Lucian’s time, as when the Apostle Paul visited it a few scores of years before. There was the same spirit of curious inquiry, the same eagerness to hear and tell some new thing, the same expectant welcome for the stranger who brought with him some item of news from 38 The Nigrinus, 12 ff. 32 A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. the outside world, or could tickle their fancy with the latest bon-mot or give them some fresh conceit in phil- osophy to debate. Lucian’s coming hither marks the beginning of that period in his life which possesses the most interest for us; for while we may not attribute to the atmosphere of the place the great change which at this time came over him, no doubt his surroundings there had much to do with the later development of his genius, HIS ADVENTURE WITH ALEXANDER. He probably left Samosata in the year 164, taking with him his father and the other members of the fam- ily. The direct route lay through Cappadocia, from which he turned aside to visit Abonotichos, a town in Paphlagonia on the Euxine, that he might see for him- self the notorious hierophant and soothsayer, Alexander, whose brazen impudence and successful imposture crown him as the most extraordinary product, the very Cagliostro, of that superstitious age. According to Lucian’s story,” being at a loss for the means of living, Alexander pretended to have discovered some bronze tablets, which foretold the early coming of Asclepius to Pontus. The god arrived in the form of a serpent— his well-known emblem—which the wily deceiver had placed in a goose egg, from which it was made to come forth at the opportune moment. With this serpent, which he called Glycon, as his chief stock in trade, to represent the younger Asclepius, he set up an oracle at Abonotichos, claiming that he was himself the son of Perseus. By means of his juggling tricks and magic arts he succeeded so well in playing upon the credulity of the populace, that his fame extended far and wide, even into Italy. The higher classes in Rome became affected with the craze; some sent their servants to con- sult the oracle and some went themselves in their eager haste to get the start of one another. Even a Roman senator, a certain Rutilianus, dispatched deputation after deputation to obtain Alexander’s advice about a second marriage and other family affairs, and finally came himself. All these things were of such common 89 The Alexander or the False Prophet, 10 ff. A SECOND CENTURY SATIRIST. 33 notoriety, that Lucian determined to satisfy his own curiosity by a personal visit and, if possible, expose the arrant humbug. As the incident illustrates so well our author’s character, his utter contempt for all charlatan- ism, delusion, and falsehood, and the impulsiveness with which he attacked them, it is worth our while to dwell somewhat upon its details. It appears, that in advance of his visit he had sent a variety of questions, under seal, with which to test the oracle. But Alexander had proved no match for his relentless inquisitor, and quickly divining his object and finding that he had shaken the faith of his rich and aristocratic patron, Rutilianus, he conceived an intense hatred for Lucian and at first tried to discredit him by casting reflections upon his character. When he learned of Lucian’s arrival in Abonotichos, whither he had been escorted by two soldiers provided by his friend, the governor of Cappadocia, to conduct him to the sea- coast, Alexander sent for him with many professions of friendship. Our author thus describes the interview that followed :* ‘‘On entering his presence I found him surrounded by numerous attendants. As good luck would have it, [had brought with me my escort.