[b] Nicetes was a native of Smyrna, and a rhetorician in great celebrity.  Seneca says (Controversiarum, lib. iv. cap. 25), that his scholars, content with hearing their master, had no ambition to be heard themselves.  Pliny the younger, among the commendations which he bestows on a friend, mentions, as a praise-worthy part of his character, that he attended the lectures of Quintilian and Nicetes Sacerdos, of whom Pliny himself was at that time a constant follower. Erat non studiorum tantum, verum etiam studiosorum amantissimus, ac prope quotidie ad audiendos, quos tunc ego frequentabam, Quintilianum et Niceten Sacerdotem, ventitabat. Lib. vi. epist. 6.

[c] Mitylene was the chief city of the isle of Lesbos, in the AEgean Sea, near the coast of Asia.  The place at this day is called Metelin, subject to the Turkish dominion. Ephesus was a city of Ionia, in the Lesser Asia, now called Ajaloue by the Turks, who are masters of the place.

[d] Domitius Afer and Julius Africanus have been already mentioned, section xiii. note [d].  Both are highly praised by Quintilian.  For Asinius Pollio, see s. xii. note [e].

Section XVI.

[a] Quintilian puts the same question; and, according to him, Demosthenes is the last of the ancients among the Greeks, as Cicero is among the Romans.  See Quintilian, lib. viii. cap. 5.

[b] The siege of Troy is supposed to have been brought to a conclusion eleven hundred and ninety-three years before Christian aera.  From that time to the sixth year of Vespasian (A.U.C. 828), when this Dialogue was had, the number of years that intervened was about 1268; a period which, with propriety, may be said to be little less than 1300 years.

[c] Demosthenes died, before Christ 322 years, A.U.C. 432.  From that time to the sixth of Vespasian, A.U.C. 828, the intervening space was about 396 years.  Aper calls it little more than 400 years; but in a conversation-piece strict accuracy is not to be expected.

[d] In the rude state of astronomy, which prevailed during many ages of the world, it was natural that mankind should differ in their computation of time.  The ancient Egyptians, according to Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. and Pliny the elder, lib. vii. s. 48, measured time by the new moons.  Some called the summer one year, and the winter another.  At first thirty days were a lunar year; three, four, and six months were afterwards added, and hence in the Egyptian chronology the vast number of years from the beginning of the world.  Herodotus informs us, that the Egyptians, in process of time, formed the idea of the solar or solstitial year, subdivided into twelve months.  The Roman year at first was lunar, consisting, in the time of Romulus, of ten months.  Numa Pompilius added two.  Men saw a diversity in the seasons, and wishing to know the cause, began at length to perceive that the distance or proximity of the sun occasioned