[584]. Poll. i. 234. Lucian. Ner. § 9. Amor. § 44. Antich. di Ercol. t. ii. p. 55. t. iii. p. 237.
[585]. Poll. x. 58, 59.
[586]. On this subject Isidorus Hispal. vi. 9. has a curious passage: “Ceræ literarum materies, parvulorum nutrices. Ipsæ dant ingenium pueris primordia sensus, quarum studium primi Græci tradidisse produntur. Græci enim et Thusci primum ferro in ceris scripserunt. Postea Romani jusserunt, ne graphium ferreum quis haberet. Undè et apud scribas dicebatur, Ceram ferro ne lædito. Postea institutum est, ut in cerâ ossibus scriberent, sicut indicat Alsa in Satyrâ dicens: Vertamus vomerem in ceram, mucroneque aremus osseo.”[osseo.”] Cf. Pfeiffer, Antiq. Græc. p. 413.
[587]. It was as the instrument of literature that the reed subdued half the world, though Pliny only celebrates its conquest as an arrow. “Ac si quis Æthiopas, Ægyptum, Arabas, Indos, Scythas, Bactros, Sarmatarum tot gentes et Orientis, omniaque Parthorum regna diligentiùs computet, æqua fermè pars hominum in toto mundo calamis superata degit.”[degit.”]—Hist. Nat. xvi. 65.
[588]. Which was the case even among the sophists, as we find Proclos granting a perpetual admission to his lectures for a hundred drachmæ.—Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 21. § 3. This he was the better enabled to do from his carrying on the business of a merchant.—§ 2. Professors’ charges appear to have been often disputed, as we find mention, in many authors, of law-suits between them and their pupils.—Lucian. Icaromenip. § 16. “The wages of industry are just and honourable, yet Isocrates shed tears at the first receipt of a stipend.”—Gibbon, vii. 146.
[589]. Athen. xiii. 47.
[590]. Vit. Hom. §§ 5. seq. 25. seq.
[591]. Speaking of the antiquities of this island Chandler remarks: “The most curious remain is that which has been named, without reason, The School of Homer. It is on the coast at some distance from the city, northward, and appears to have been an open temple of Cybele, formed on the top of a rock. The shape is oval, and in the centre is the image of the goddess, the head and an arm wanting. She is represented, as usual, sitting. The chair has a lion carved on each side, and on the back. The area is bounded by a low rim or seat, and about five yards over. The whole is hewn out of the mountain, is rude, indistinct, and probably of the most remote antiquity.” i. 61.
[592]. Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 10.
[593]. Quint. i. 1. Poll. vii. 128. Aristoph. Thesm. 778.