against mythology; _True History_, a parody of the false or romantic
histories then so fashionable, more especially about Alexander. He
certainly possessed little depth, but his talent was incredible:
alertness, causticity, amusing logic, burlesque dialectics, an
astonishing instinct for caricature, the art of natural dialogue, gay
insolence, light but vivid psychological penetration, an almost profound
sense of the ridiculous, joyous fooling; above all, that first essential
of satire, to be himself amused by what he wrote to amuse others; all
these he possessed in a high degree. Rabelais has been called the Homeric
buffoon, Lucian is certainly the Socratic.

POETRY AND ROMANCE.--Greek poetry no longer existed at this period.
Hardly is it permissible to cite the didactic Oppian, with his poem on
sin, and the fabulist Babrius, imitator of Aesop in his fables. In
reparation, the romance was born and the scientific literature was
important. The romance claimed among its representatives Antonius
Diogenes, with his _Marvels Beyond Thule_; Heliodorus, with his
_Aethiopica_ or _Theagenes and Chariclea_, the love-story so
much admired by Racine in his youth; Longus, with his _Daphnis and
Chloe_, which still retains general approval and which possesses real,
though somewhat studied grace, and of which the ability of the style is
quite above the normal.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.--Scientific literature includes the highly
illustrious mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy, whose system obtained
respect and belief until the advent of Copernicus; the physician Galen;
the philosopher-physician Sextus Empiricus, who was a good historian,
highly sceptical, but well informed and intelligent about philosophical
ideas.