Read the various stories of _Metamorphoses_[619] by Lucius of Patrae.
The style is clear, pure, and agreeable; avoiding innovations in
language, the author carries to excess his tales of marvels, so that
he may be called a second Lucian. The first two books are almost
translations from Lucian’s _Lucius_ or _The Ass_, unless Lucian
borrowed from Lucius, which, if I may hazard the conjecture, is the
case, although I have not been able to find out for certain which
wrote first. For it seems that Lucian, having cut down the more
copious work of Lucius and removed all that seemed unsuitable for
his purpose, combined what was left into a single composition, in
which the words and arrangement of the original were preserved, and
gave the title of _Lucius_ or _The Ass_ to what he had borrowed.
Both works are full of mythical fictions and disgraceful indecency.
The only difference is that Lucian, as in all his other writings,
ridicules and scoffs at heathenish superstitions, whereas Lucius,
taking quite seriously and believing the transformations of men into
other men and brutes, and of brutes into men, and all the idle talk
and nonsense of ancient fables, set them down in writing and worked
them up into a story.