three books of Silli, two in dialogues, and one in continuous narrative.
He was a philosopher, and the principal object of his work was to bring
other sects into ridicule and discredit. A few reflections of general
application are scattered through it, but they are in general quite
subsidiary and suggested by the subject matter.




PART III.

ROMAN HUMOUR.

Roman Comedy--Plautus--Acerbity--Terence--Satire--Lucilius--Horace--Humour
of the Cæsar Family--Cicero--Augustus--Persius--Petronius--Juvenal
--Martial--Epigrammatist--Lucian--Apuleius--Julian the Apostate--The
Misopogon--Symposius' Enigmas--Macrobius--Hierocles and Philagrius.


The light of genius which shone in Greece was to some extent reflected
upon Rome, where there was never an equal brilliancy. As for humour,
such as was indigenous in the country, it was only represented by a few
Saturnian snatches, some Fescennine banterings at weddings and
harvest-homes, and rude pantomimic performances also originating in
Etruria. Intellectual pleasantry was unknown, except as an exotic, and
flourished almost exclusively among those who were imbued with the
literature of Greece.

About the date at which we arrived at the end of the last chapter--the
middle of the third century, B.C.--the first regular play was