Read the _Various Extracts_ of the sophist Sopater,[661] in twelve
books, compiled from the works of different historians and writers.
The first book gives an account of the fables of the gods from the
third book of Apollodorus,[662] an Athenian who taught grammar, _On
the Gods_. The selections are not from the third book alone, but
also from the fourth, fifth, ninth, first, twelfth, fifteenth, and
sixteenth, down to the twenty-fourth. The collection includes the
mythical tales and fictions concerning the gods and whatever else
is of any historical value, such as the stories of the heroes, the
Dioscuri,[663] and those in Hades, and the like. The compiler has
also drawn upon the second book of Juba[664] _On Painting_, and upon
the _Deipnosophists_ of Athenaeus[665] of Naucratis. Such are the
sources and contents of the first book.
The second book is from the first book and onwards down to the tenth
book of the _Epitomes_ of Pamphila,[666] the daughter of Soteridas,
and from Artemon[667] of Magnesia’s _On Remarkable Deeds of Women_,
the _Apophthegms_ of Diogenes[668] the Cynic, the eighth book of
Sappho,[669] and various other writers. Such is the second book of
the extracts.
The third book is from the _Various History_ of Favorinus,[670] from
books Ν, Ξ, and the rest in order, with the exception of Τ, up to Ω.
These contain various histories, the reasons and origins and meanings
of words and names, and the like. This ends the third book.
The fourth book is compiled from an anonymous work entitled a
_Collection of Wonderful Things_, from the sixteenth book of the
_Miscellaneous Notes_ of Aristoxenus,[671] and from the eighth book
of the _Dramatic History_ of Rufus.[672] Here are to be found many
improbable and incredible things, various tragic and comic incidents,
dialogues and speeches, manners and customs, and the like, with which
the fourth book ends.
The fifth book consists of extracts from the first, second, and
third books of Rufus’s _Musical History_. It contains an account of
different comedians and tragedians, of writers of dithyrambs, players
on the flute and cithara, of nuptial songs and song accompanied by
dance, of dancers and others who took part in theatrical contests,
the origin and family antecedents of those among them who became
famous, whether men or women; which of them were known as the
originators of what practices, which of them were the friends and
intimates of emperors and kings; what the contests were and whence
derived, in which each exhibited his art. The general festivals
celebrated by the whole Athenian people are also described. All these
things, and the like, the reader will find in the fifth book.
The sixth book is from the fourth and fifth books of the _Musical
History_ by the same Rufus. It gives an account of flute-players, of
the songs sung to the flute by men and women, of the poets Homer,
Hesiod, and Antimachus,[673] and most of the other poets belonging
to their school, and tells us something about female soothsayers,
who the so-called Sibyls were and whence they came, all borrowed
from Rufus. The second book of the _Halieutica_ of Damostratus,[674]
and the first, fifth, ninth, and tenth books of the _Lives of
the Philosophers_ by Diogenes Laërtius[675] are also drawn upon.
We have an account of the philosophers and of the origin of the
divine study--philosophy; how it flourished, who were the heads and
champions of the different schools, who were their followers or
rivals, the character exhibited by each, their birth and origin,
their manner of life from the beginning, and the time in which they
flourished. The book also contains information about rhetoric and
rhetoricians, extracts from Aelius Dionysius’s work _On Alexandria_,
and from the _Aegyptiaca_ of Hellanicus,[676] and concludes with
various mythical and fictitious stories and other things.
The seventh book is a kind of anthology from the _History_ of
Herodotus.
The eighth book consists of extracts from an old and anonymous work.
It gives a list of women who rose to fame and made a brilliant name,
of the deeds of certain men and their meetings for the study of
rhetoric, of the excellence of friendship, and the maxims of worthy
men. There are also selections from Plutarch’s essays on _How a Young
Man should Listen to the Poets_ and on _Nature and Labours_, showing
how many, often with great difficulty, have reformed a vicious
nature, while others through carelessness have allowed a good one
to become corrupted; how some who in their younger days were looked
upon as slow and unintelligent, when they grew up were distinguished
by brilliant qualities, quick-wittedness, and intellectual gifts.
Also from the treatises _On Shamefacedness_, _On Garrulity_, _On
Anger_, _On How One should Obtain Benefit from One’s Enemies_, _On
Cheerfulness_, _On Political Precepts_, _On Wealth_, _How One can be
Conscious of Progress in Virtue_, _On Rules of Health_, _On Marriage
Precepts_. Amongst these extracts is to be found much that is worthy
of being remembered, both words and deeds, which will be found
serviceable in many respects. Such is the contents of the eighth book.
The ninth book consists of extracts from Plutarch’s _The Slow
Vengeance of the Gods_, the _Lives of Demetrius_ and _Of Brutus the
Roman_, the book entitled _Apophthegms of Famous Men_, the little
treatise _On Rivers_, and _How to Distinguish the Flatterer from the
Friend_, the _Lives of Crates_, _Daiphantus_, and _Pindar_, and the
work entitled _Apophthegms of Kings and Generals_, and the first to
the eighth of the _Convivial Discourses_. Such is the matter supplied
by Plutarch. The author has also borrowed from the first, second,
third, and fourth books of Rufus’s _Roman History_, in which will be
found much that deserves mention although mixed up with fables and
long-winded nonsense. Such is the contents of the ninth book.
The tenth book is compiled from the _Erato_ of Cephalion,[677]
and describes the life and deeds of Alexander the Great; from the
treatise of Apollonius the Stoic[678]; concerning women who have been
philosophers or have achieved fame by anything else, or by whose
mediation families were reconciled; from the _History of Macedon_
by Theagenes;[679] from Plutarch’s _Lives_ of Nicias, Alcibiades,
Themistocles, Theseus, Lycurgus, Solon, and Alexander the son of
Philip, Cimon, [Lysander, Demosthenes], Pericles, Pelopidas, Phocion,
and Aristides, containing much that is worthy of being narrated and
recorded. Such is the contents of the tenth book.
The eleventh book is in like manner compiled from Plutarch’s _Lives_
of Epaminondas, Dion, Agesilaus, Agis, Cleomenes, Eumenes of Cardia,
Philopoemen,[680] Aratus, who when general of the Achaean league
commanded the forces seventeen times and greatly distinguished
himself in the field, and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus; from the first and
second books of Aristophanes[681] the grammarian’s work _On Animals_,
and the seventeenth book of king Juba’s _Theatrical History_. Such is
the contents of the eleventh book.
The twelfth book is taken from various sources: Callixenus’s[682]
_Catalogue of Painters and Sculptors_, Aristonicus’s[683] _On the
Museum at Alexandria_, the _Constitutions_ of Aristotle, dealing with
those of the Thessalians, Achaeans, Parians, Lycians, Chians, and of
all the peoples whom he has mentioned in his political writings, the
usefulness of which is evident. Such is the contents of the twelfth
book.
The work is very useful to the reader. For although it is not free
from fabulous, monstrous, false and improbable statements, as I have
already mentioned more than once, yet from those which are as it were
contributions from the storehouse of learning, one may gather much
that promotes virtue and honesty. For the student of rhetoric and
sophistic, as he himself says to his friends in the introduction,
they are of considerable importance and will be very serviceable. The
diction is varied, not confined to one style, although clearness is
the distinguishing feature of the entire work.