Nitzsche (I 897) writes, "Between Book IX. and Book XI there is a gap; that gap the _Doloneia_ fills: it must have been composed to be part of the _ILIAD_." But he thinks that the _Doloneia_ has taken the place of an earlier lay which filled the gap. [Footnote: Die _Echtheit der Doloneia,_ p. 32. Programme des K. K. Staats Gymnasium zu Marburg, 1877.] That the Book is never referred to later in the _Iliad_, even if it be true, is no great argument against its authenticity. For when later references are made to Book IX., they are dismissed as clever late interpolations. If the horses of Rhesus took part, as they do not, in the sports at the funeral of Patroclus, the passage would be called a clever interpolation: in fact, Diomede had better horses, divine horses to run. However, it is certainly remarkable that the interpolation was not made by one of the interpolators of critical theory. Meanwhile there is, we think, a reference to Book X. in Book XIV. [Footnote: This was pointed out to me by Mr. Shewan, to whose great knowledge of Homer I am here much indebted.] In _Iliad_, XIV. 9-11, we read that Nestor, in his quarters with the wounded Machaon, on the day following the night of Dolon's death, hears the cry of battle and goes out to see what is happening. "He took the well-wrought shield of his son, horse-taming Thrasymedes, which was lying in the hut, all glistening with bronze, but _the son had the shield of his father_." Why had Thrasymedes the shield of his father? At about 3 A.M. before dawn the shield of Nestor was lying beside him in his own bedroom (Book X. 76), and at the same moment his son Thrasymedes _was_ on outpost duty, and had his own shield with him (Book IX. 81). When, then, did father and son exchange shields, and why? Mr. Leaf says, "It is useless to inquire why father and son had thus changed shields, as the scholiasts of course do." The scholiasts merely babble. Homer, of course, meant _something_ by this exchange of shields, which occurred late in the night of Book IX. or very early in the following day, that of Books XI-XVI. Let us follow again the sequence of events. On the night before the day when Nestor had Thrasymedes' shield and Thrasymedes had Nestor's, Thrasymedes was sent out, with shield and all, in command of one of the seven companies of an advanced guard, posted between fosse and wall, in case of a camisade by the Trojans, who were encamped on the plain (IX. 81). With him in command were Meriones and five other young men less notable. They had supplies with them and whatever was needed: they cooked supper in bivouac.