FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 25: Cic., _Murena_, 27.]

[Footnote 26: _Ep._, i. 18.]

[Footnote 27: _Ibid._, 3. 5. 4.]

[Footnote 28: Chap. II]

[Footnote 29: Dio Cass., _Domitian_, 9.]




III

STORIES OF HAUNTING


In a letter to Sura[30] the younger Pliny gives us what may be taken as
a prototype of all later haunted-house stories. At one time in Athens
there was a roomy old house where nobody could be induced to live. In
the dead of night the sound of clanking chains would be heard, distant
at first, proceeding doubtless from the garden behind or the inner court
of the house, then gradually drawing nearer and nearer, till at last
there appeared the figure of an old man with a long beard, thin and
emaciated, with chains on his hands and feet. The house was finally
abandoned, and advertised to be let or sold at an absurdly low price.
The philosopher Athenodorus read the notice on his arrival in Athens,