Of the older prose writers, he was best acquainted with the famous treatise by Boethius, and with the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero as preserved and commented on by Macrobius. He also quotes from other works by Cicero; from the work De Factis Memorabilibus by Valerius Maximus; and from some of the letters and treatises of Seneca[81]. There is evidence of his acquaintance with Suetonius and Florus; and, possibly, with the Fables of Hyginus. I find no sure trace of his acquaintance with Orosius, or with the works of the elder Pliny. It is almost certain that he was unacquainted with Livy; the story of Lucretia is really from St. Augustine[82] and Ovid; and that of Virginia, from Le Roman de la Rose. As to the Latin fathers, we have the most ample evidence that Chaucer had very carefully studied the treatise of St. Jerome against Jovinian, which happens to include all that is known of the Liber Aureolus de Nuptiis by Theophrastus. How far he was really acquainted with the writings of St. Augustine and St. Bernard, we cannot very well discover. The quotations from St. Gregory, St. Basil, and others, in the Parson's Tale, are all given at second-hand. The authors of later times whom Chaucer quotes or mentions are rather numerous; although, in many instances, he only quotes them at second-hand; as is (usually) pointed out in the Index. It may suffice to mention here some of the more important examples. The life of St. Cecilia is from Jacobus de Voragine and Simeon Metaphrastes. The treatise by pope Innocent III. entitled De Contemptu Mundi, or otherwise, De Miseria Conditionis Humanae, was translated by our author into English verse; but only portions of it are preserved, viz. in the Man of Lawes Tale, and (adapted to the heroic measure) in the Pardoner's Tale. Alanus de Insulis wrote pieces entitled De Planctu Naturae, Anticlaudianus, and Liber Parabolarum; all of these are occasionally quoted or referred to, and the first of them clearly suggested the Parliament of Foules.