Chapter CLXI

Read the _Various Extracts_ of the sophist Sopater,[661] in twelve books, compiled from the works of different historians and writers. The first book gives an account of the fables of the gods from the third book of Apollodorus,[662] an Athenian who taught grammar, _On the Gods_. The selections are not from the third book alone, but also from the fourth, fifth, ninth, first, twelfth, fifteenth, and sixteenth, down to the twenty-fourth. The collection includes the mythical tales and fictions concerning the gods and whatever else is of any historical value, such as the stories of the heroes, the Dioscuri,[663] and those in Hades, and the like. The compiler has also drawn upon the second book of Juba[664] _On Painting_, and upon the _Deipnosophists_ of Athenaeus[665] of Naucratis. Such are the sources and contents of the first book.

The second book is from the first book and onwards down to the tenth book of the _Epitomes_ of Pamphila,[666] the daughter of Soteridas, and from Artemon[667] of Magnesia’s _On Remarkable Deeds of Women_, the _Apophthegms_ of Diogenes[668] the Cynic, the eighth book of Sappho,[669] and various other writers. Such is the second book of the extracts.

The third book is from the _Various History_ of Favorinus,[670] from books Ν, Ξ, and the rest in order, with the exception of Τ, up to Ω. These contain various histories, the reasons and origins and meanings of words and names, and the like. This ends the third book.

The fourth book is compiled from an anonymous work entitled a _Collection of Wonderful Things_, from the sixteenth book of the _Miscellaneous Notes_ of Aristoxenus,[671] and from the eighth book of the _Dramatic History_ of Rufus.[672] Here are to be found many improbable and incredible things, various tragic and comic incidents, dialogues and speeches, manners and customs, and the like, with which the fourth book ends.

The fifth book consists of extracts from the first, second, and third books of Rufus’s _Musical History_. It contains an account of different comedians and tragedians, of writers of dithyrambs, players on the flute and cithara, of nuptial songs and song accompanied by dance, of dancers and others who took part in theatrical contests, the origin and family antecedents of those among them who became famous, whether men or women; which of them were known as the originators of what practices, which of them were the friends and intimates of emperors and kings; what the contests were and whence derived, in which each exhibited his art. The general festivals celebrated by the whole Athenian people are also described. All these things, and the like, the reader will find in the fifth book.

The sixth book is from the fourth and fifth books of the _Musical History_ by the same Rufus. It gives an account of flute-players, of the songs sung to the flute by men and women, of the poets Homer, Hesiod, and Antimachus,[673] and most of the other poets belonging to their school, and tells us something about female soothsayers, who the so-called Sibyls were and whence they came, all borrowed from Rufus. The second book of the _Halieutica_ of Damostratus,[674] and the first, fifth, ninth, and tenth books of the _Lives of the Philosophers_ by Diogenes Laërtius[675] are also drawn upon. We have an account of the philosophers and of the origin of the divine study--philosophy; how it flourished, who were the heads and champions of the different schools, who were their followers or rivals, the character exhibited by each, their birth and origin, their manner of life from the beginning, and the time in which they flourished. The book also contains information about rhetoric and rhetoricians, extracts from Aelius Dionysius’s work _On Alexandria_, and from the _Aegyptiaca_ of Hellanicus,[676] and concludes with various mythical and fictitious stories and other things.

The seventh book is a kind of anthology from the _History_ of Herodotus.

The eighth book consists of extracts from an old and anonymous work. It gives a list of women who rose to fame and made a brilliant name, of the deeds of certain men and their meetings for the study of rhetoric, of the excellence of friendship, and the maxims of worthy men. There are also selections from Plutarch’s essays on _How a Young Man should Listen to the Poets_ and on _Nature and Labours_, showing how many, often with great difficulty, have reformed a vicious nature, while others through carelessness have allowed a good one to become corrupted; how some who in their younger days were looked upon as slow and unintelligent, when they grew up were distinguished by brilliant qualities, quick-wittedness, and intellectual gifts. Also from the treatises _On Shamefacedness_, _On Garrulity_, _On Anger_, _On How One should Obtain Benefit from One’s Enemies_, _On Cheerfulness_, _On Political Precepts_, _On Wealth_, _How One can be Conscious of Progress in Virtue_, _On Rules of Health_, _On Marriage Precepts_. Amongst these extracts is to be found much that is worthy of being remembered, both words and deeds, which will be found serviceable in many respects. Such is the contents of the eighth book.

The ninth book consists of extracts from Plutarch’s _The Slow Vengeance of the Gods_, the _Lives of Demetrius_ and _Of Brutus the Roman_, the book entitled _Apophthegms of Famous Men_, the little treatise _On Rivers_, and _How to Distinguish the Flatterer from the Friend_, the _Lives of Crates_, _Daiphantus_, and _Pindar_, and the work entitled _Apophthegms of Kings and Generals_, and the first to the eighth of the _Convivial Discourses_. Such is the matter supplied by Plutarch. The author has also borrowed from the first, second, third, and fourth books of Rufus’s _Roman History_, in which will be found much that deserves mention although mixed up with fables and long-winded nonsense. Such is the contents of the ninth book.

The tenth book is compiled from the _Erato_ of Cephalion,[677] and describes the life and deeds of Alexander the Great; from the treatise of Apollonius the Stoic[678]; concerning women who have been philosophers or have achieved fame by anything else, or by whose mediation families were reconciled; from the _History of Macedon_ by Theagenes;[679] from Plutarch’s _Lives_ of Nicias, Alcibiades, Themistocles, Theseus, Lycurgus, Solon, and Alexander the son of Philip, Cimon, [Lysander, Demosthenes], Pericles, Pelopidas, Phocion, and Aristides, containing much that is worthy of being narrated and recorded. Such is the contents of the tenth book.

The eleventh book is in like manner compiled from Plutarch’s _Lives_ of Epaminondas, Dion, Agesilaus, Agis, Cleomenes, Eumenes of Cardia, Philopoemen,[680] Aratus, who when general of the Achaean league commanded the forces seventeen times and greatly distinguished himself in the field, and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus; from the first and second books of Aristophanes[681] the grammarian’s work _On Animals_, and the seventeenth book of king Juba’s _Theatrical History_. Such is the contents of the eleventh book.

The twelfth book is taken from various sources: Callixenus’s[682] _Catalogue of Painters and Sculptors_, Aristonicus’s[683] _On the Museum at Alexandria_, the _Constitutions_ of Aristotle, dealing with those of the Thessalians, Achaeans, Parians, Lycians, Chians, and of all the peoples whom he has mentioned in his political writings, the usefulness of which is evident. Such is the contents of the twelfth book.

The work is very useful to the reader. For although it is not free from fabulous, monstrous, false and improbable statements, as I have already mentioned more than once, yet from those which are as it were contributions from the storehouse of learning, one may gather much that promotes virtue and honesty. For the student of rhetoric and sophistic, as he himself says to his friends in the introduction, they are of considerable importance and will be very serviceable. The diction is varied, not confined to one style, although clearness is the distinguishing feature of the entire work.