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 454 fflSTORI OF GREECE. paratively few. We know from Thucydides how erroneously and carelessly the Athenian public of his day retained the his- tory of Peisistratus, only one century past; 1 but the adventures of the gods and heroes, the numberless explanatory legends at- tached to visible objects and periodical ceremonies, were the theme of general talk, and any man unacquainted with them would have found himself partially excluded from the sympathy of his neighbors. The theatrical representations, exhibited to the entire city population, and listened to with enthusiastic interest, both presupposed and perpetuated acquaintance with the great lines of heroic fable : indeed, in later times even the pantomimic dancers embraced in their representations the whole field of my- thical incident, and their immense success proves at once how popular and how well known such subjects were. The names and attributes of the heroes were incessantly alluded to in the way of illustration, to point out a consoling, admonitory, or re- pressive moral : the simple mention of any of them sufficed to call up in every one's mind the principal events of his life, and the poet or rhapsode could thus calculate on touching chords not less familiar than susceptible. 2 his carriage on the festival-day of the Hilaria ; he was connected by the ties of relationship with Aurelian, who had died about a generation before and as the carriage passed by the splendid Temple of the Sun, which Aurelian had consecrated, he asked Vopiscus, what author had written the life of that emperor ? To which Vopiscus replied, that he had read some Greek works which touched upon Aurelian, but nothing in Latin. Whereat the venerable prsefect was profoundly grieved : " Dolorem gcmitus sui vir sanctus per hsec verba profudit : Ergo Tliersitem, Sinonem, cateraque ilia prodigia vetustatis, et nos bene scimus, et posteri frequenlubunt : divum Aurelianum, clarissimum principem, scverissimum Imperatorem, per quern totus Romano nomini orbis est restitutus, posteri nescient ? Deus avertat hanc amentiam ! Et tamen, si bene memini, ephemeridas illius viri scriptas habemus," etc. (Historiaa August. Scriptt. p. 209, ed. Salmiis.) This impressive remonstrance produced the Life of Aurelian by Vopiscns The materials seem to have been ample and authentic ; it is to be regretted that they did not fall into the hands of an author qualified to turn them to better account. 1 Thucyd. vi. 56. Pausan. i. 3, 3. A/yerat plv 3r) /cat aXha OVK aXrj&ri Trapd rotf iroM.Cif. ola IffTopiac uvijKooif ovai, KOI dTroaa f/KOVov et>#t)f in. Traitiuv Iv re %6poi( KO! iriarH jyyotyu'voto. etc. The treatise of Lucian, De Saltatione, fo