And the arrangement of the conversation is an imitation of a sumptuous banquet; and the plan of the book follows the arrangement of the conversation. This, then, is the delicious feast of words which this admirable master of the feast, Athenæus, has prepared for us; and gradually surpassing himself, like the orator at Athens, as he warms with his subject, he bounds on towards the end of the book in noble strides. 2. And the Deipnosophists who were present at this banquet were, _Masyrius_, an expounder of the law, and one who had been no superficial student of every sort of learning; _Magnus_ . . . [Myrtilus] a poet; a man who in other branches of learning was inferior to no one, and who had devoted himself in no careless manner to the whole circle of arts and learning; for in everything which he discussed, he appeared as if that was the sole thing which he had studied; so great and so various was his learning from his childhood. And he was an iambic poet, inferior to no one who has ever lived since the time of Archilochus. There were present also _Plutarchus_, and _Leonidas_ of Elis, and _Æmilianus_ the Mauritanian, and _Zöilus_, all the most admirable of grammarians. And of philosophers there were present _Pontianus_ and _Democritus_, both of Nicomedia; men superior to all their contemporaries in the extent and variety of their learning; and _Philadelphus_ of Ptolemais, a man who had not only been bred up from his infancy in philosophical speculation, but who was also a man of the highest reputation in every part of his life. Of the Cynics, there was one whom he calls _Cynulcus_, who had not only two white dogs following him, as they did Telemachus when he went to the assembly, but a more numerous pack than even Actæon had. And of rhetoricians there was a whole troop, in no respect inferior to the Cynics. And these last, as well, indeed, as every one else who ever opened his mouth, were run down by _Uppianus_ the Tyrian, who, on account of the everlasting questions which he keeps putting every hour in the streets, and walks, and booksellers' shops, and baths, has got a name by which he is better known than by his real one, _Ceitouceitus_. This man had a rule of his own, to eat nothing without saying κεῖται; ἢ οὐ κεῖται; In this way, "Can we say of the word ὥρα, that it κεῖται, or is applicable to any part of the day? And is the word μέθυσο, or drunk, applicable to a man? Can the word μήτρα, or paunch, be applied to any eatable food? Is the name σύαγρος a compound word applicable to a boar?"--And of physicians there were present _Daphnus_ the Ephesian, a man holy both in his art and by his manners, a man of no slight insight into the principles of the Academic school; and _Galenus_ of Pergamos, who has published such numbers of philosophical and medical works as to surpass all those who preceded him, and who is inferior to none of the guests in the eloquence of his descriptions. And _Rufinus_ of