Before leaving the subject of the Pharos of Alexandria, I wish to vindicate the memory of its architect Sostratus from the calumny of Lucian, who, in his Treatise on the art of writing history, with his usual acrimony, accuses the builder of the Pharos of a fraud, in cutting his own name on the solid walls of the Tower, and covering the inscription with plaster, on which he carved the name of his royal master Ptolemy.[31] Against this assertion I would oppose the testimony of Strabo, who calls Sostratus the “friend of the Kings” (see the quotation at the foot of page 183), and the direct evidence of Pliny, who, in the passage above cited, expressly states, as a proof of Ptolemy’s magnanimity, his giving the architect liberty to inscribe his own name on the Tower. The only other notices of the Pharos which I have been able to find in ancient writers are from Cæsar’s Commentaries, Valerius Flaccus, and Pomponius Mela.[32] At Alexandria, there is a modern lighthouse called the Pharos, which is maintained by the Pacha of Egypt. [31] Lucian, in his Treatise (Amsterdam, 1743, vol. ii., p. 68.) Πως δει ἱστοριαν συγγραφειν, thus details the merit and fraud of Sostratus. Ορᾷς τον Κνίδιον ἐκεῖνον ἀρχιτεκτονα, οἶον ἐποίησεν; οἰκοδομὴσας γαρ τον ἐπὶ τῇ Φαρῳ πῦργον, μεγιστον και καλλιστον ἔργων ἀπαντων, ὡς πυρσεύοιτο ἀπ’ αὐτου τοις ναυτιλλομενοις, ἐπὶ πολὺ της θαλασσης, και μὴ καταφέροιντο εἰς την Παραιτονίαν, παγχάλεπον, ὣς φασιν, οὖσαν και ἄφυκτον, εἴ τις ἐμπεσοι εἴς τα, ἕρματα. Οἰκοδομήσας οὐν το ἔργον, ἔνδοθεν μεν, κατα των λιθων, το αὐτου ὄνομα ἐπέγραψεν. Ἐπιχρίσας δὲ τιτάνῳ και ἐπικαλύψας, ἐπέγραψε το ὀνομα του τότε βασιλέυοντος, εἰδὼς, ὃσπερ και ἐγενετο, πάνυ ὀλιγου χρονου, συνεκπεσουμενα μεν τῳ χρισματι τα γραμματα, εκφανησόμενον δε ΣΩΣΤΡΑΤΟΣ ΔΕΧΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ Κνιδιος. θεοις σωτηρσιν ὑπερ των πλωΐζομεων, κ.τ.λ. [32] Cæsar de Bell. Civil., iii. 98 (Lond. 1712, p. 355). Pharus est in insula turris, magna altitudine, mirificis operibus extructa, quae nomen ab insula accepit. Valerius Flaccus very distinctly sets forth the great advantage of lighthouses to the seaman, and especially speaks of those at Alexandria and Ostia in these lines-- Non ita Tyrrhenus stupet Ioniusve magister, Qui portus, Tyberine, tuos, claramque serenâ Arce Pharon præceps subiit: _Argonaut_, vii., v. 84. Pompon. Mela, ii. cap. 7. ~Coruña Tower~