Aratus, who was born in Cilicia, is sometimes counted among the pleiades, or seven stars of Alexandria.  His Phenomena is a short astronomical poem, without life or feeling, which scarcely aims at any of the grace or flow of poetry.  It describes the planets and the constellations one by one, and tells us what stars are seen in the head, feet, and other parts of each figure; and then the seasons, and the stars seen at night at each time of the year.  When maps were little known, it must have been of great use, to learners; and its being in verse made it the more easy to remember.  The value which the ancients set upon this poem is curiously shown by the number of Latin translations which were made from it.  Cicero in his early youth, before he was known as an orator or philosopher, perhaps before he himself knew in which path of letters he was soon to take the lead, translated this poem.  The next translation is by Germanicus Caesar, whose early death and many good qualities have thrown such a bright light upon his name.  He shone as a general, as an orator, and as an author; but his Greek comedies, his Latin orations, and his poem on Augustus are lost, while his translation of Aratus is all that is left to prove that this high name in literature was not given to him for his political virtues alone.  Lastly Avienus, a writer in the reign of Diocletian, or perhaps of Theodosius, has left a rugged, unpolished translation of this much-valued poem.  Aratus, the poet of the heavens, will be read, said Ovid, as long as the sun and moon shall shine.

Sosibius was one of the rhetoricians of the museum who lived upon the bounty of Philadelphus.  The king, wishing to laugh at his habit of verbal criticism, once told his treasurer to refuse his salary, and say that it had been already paid.  Sosibius complained to the king, and the book of receipts was sent for, in which Philadelphus found the names of Soter, Sosigines, Bion, and Apollonius, and showing to the critic one syllable of his name in each of those words, said that putting them together, they must be taken as the receipt for his salary.  Other authors wrote on lighter matters.  Apollodorus Gelous, the physician, addressed to Philadelphus a volume of advice as to which Greek wines were best fitted for his royal palate.  The Italian and Sicilian were then unknown in Egypt, and those of the Thebaid were wholly beneath his notice, while the vine had as yet hardly been planted in the neighbourhood of Alexandria.  He particularly praised the Naspercenite wine from the southern banks of the Black Sea, the Oretic from the island of Euboea; the OEneatic from Locris; the Leuca-dian from the island of Leucas; and the Ambraciote from the kingdom of Epirus.

[Illustration:  128.jpg AN ATHLETE DISPORTING ON A CROCODILE]