“My child, have regard unto this bosom and pity me if ever I gave thee consolation of my breast.”[53] When Dionysius suddenly learned at a banquet that Chaereas was alive from reading his letter to Callirhoe, “his knees and his heart were unstrung.”[54] When Artaxerxes was smitten with love for Callirhoe, he lay awake all night, “now lying on his side, now on his back, now on his face.”[55] When Chaereas and Callirhoe had their ecstatic reunion on Aradus, “when they had had their fill of tears and story-telling, embracing each other, ‘they came gladly to the rites of their bed, as of old.’”[56] Enough illustrations of Chariton’s use of Homer have been given to show the manner of it. Different explanations of Chariton’s constant use have been advanced. Schmid thinks it is an indication of the influence of the Menippean satire with its mingling of prose and verse. Jacob believes it due to Chariton’s desire to make his style poetic. Calderini is more understanding. He thinks that Chariton, thoroughly familiar with Homer, quoted him to express worthily some noble thought and that he saw the peculiar emphasis which a quotation from Homer could give to the expression of a sudden, violent emotion. He also uses episodes from Homer (the appeal of Hecuba from the wall to Hector,[57] the apparition of Patroclus before Achilles,[58] the Homeric τειχοσκοπία).[59] More than all, his style is usually Homeric in its brevity and simplicity; and in his use of quotations, of scenes and of style he is the first example of those relations between epic and romance which became so important in the mediaeval literature of the west.[60] Other literary influences are apparent. The Milesian Tales may have suggested Miletus as the locality for the love-story of Dionysius. The Ninus Romance is the precursor of the historical element which paints a background of realism through the use of historical characters, notably Hermocrates and Artaxerxes, and through allusions to actual wars. Drama contributed the language of the stage to the description of the action. And at one crisis when Chaereas, who is believed dead, is produced by Mithridates in court, Chariton explains: