[118] This was a staff, or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches. “A strip of leather was rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible; commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled their papers, and so were able to read the dispatches.” (Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon sub voc.) Hence scytale came to mean generally a Spartan dispatch, which was characteristically laconic in its brevity. [119] See i. 7, 15, 24, 32; iii. 51; iv. 5, 22, 26, 27, 46; v. 2, 10, 39, 40, 41; vi. 18, 27, 29, 31, 33; viii. 7, 20, 27, 28. [120] I.e., Cynic. [121] Chassang (op. cit., pp. 395 sqq.) gives a French translation of them. [122] Art. “Apollonius,” Smith’s Dict. of Class. Biog. [123] That is to say, a philosopher of 600 years ago. [124] That is to expiate blood-guiltiness with blood-sacrifice. [125] Chaignet (A. É.), in his Pythagore et la Philosophie pythagoricienne (Paris; 1873, 2nd ed. 1874), cites this as a genuine example of Apollonius’ philosophy. [126] That is his idea of death. [127] The text of the last sentence is very obscure. [128] The full title is given by Eudocia, Ionia; ed. Villoison (Venet.; 1781), p. 57. [129] See Zeller, Phil. d. Griech, v. 127. [130] Præparat. Evangel., iv. 12-13; ed. Dindorf (Leipzig; 1867), i. 176, 177. [131] A play on the meanings of λόγος, which signifies both reason and word. [132] Psyche, I. ii. 5. [133] Noack, ibid. [134] See Noack, Porphr. Vit. Pythag., p. 15. [135] Ed. Amstelod., 1707, cc. 254-264. _WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ +THE PISTIS SOPHIA: A Gnostic Gospel.+ (With Extracts from the Books of the Saviour appended). Originally translated from Greek into Coptic, and now for the first time Englished from Schwartze’s Latin Version of the only known Coptic MS., and checked by Amélineau’s French Version. With an Introduction and Bibliography. 394 pp., large octavo. Cloth, 7s. 6d. net. _SOME PRESS OPINIONS._ “The Pistis Sophia has long been recognised as one of the most important Gnostic documents we possess, and Mr Mead deserves the gratitude of students of Church History and of the History of Christian Thought, for his admirable translation and edition of this curious Gospel.”--_Glasgow Herald._ “Mr Mead has done a service to other than Theosophists by his translation of the Pistis Sophia. This curious work has not till lately received the attention which it deserves.... He has prefixed a short Introduction, which includes an excellent bibliography. Thus, the English reader is now in a position to judge for himself of the scientific value of the only Gnostic treatise of any considerable length which has come down to us.”--_Guardian._