In considering these philosophical sports, which mingled in the same breath the grave and solemn lessons of philosophy and the most ludicrous mimicry and buffoonery, we may perhaps find a reason why Persius, a youth educated in the Stoic sect, should have thought of making Sophron the model of his Satires. This statement is given by a late, but in this instance a credible writer,(1688) and is confirmed by the dramatic character of the Satires of Persius, and the constant use of mimicry in them, particularly the first four; so much so indeed, that a study of Persius is the best method of forming an accurate and lively idea of the mimes of Sophron. 6. The Dorians in general had evidently less poetical skill and feeling than the Athenians, and did not cultivate those rude attempts of wit and mirth which the festivals called forth, and of which the Athenians knew so well how to take advantage. This incapacity or negligence of the early times enables us to explain why several kinds of Doric poetry were not received into the literature of civilized Greece until the Alexandrian age, of which we may particularly specify the bucolic poetry, and the phlyaces of Tarentum. These carnival sports had doubtless been represented for ages, before they acquired, in the time of Ptolemy the First, notoriety in other places by the poems of Rhinthon, which were named after them. These plays are also called Ἱλαροτραγῳδία,(1689) or tragi-comedy; and both these and the titles of some pieces(1690) and fragments handed down to us show that they were burlesques of tragical subjects.(1691) It may, however, be easily supposed that Rhinthon did not lose sight of the Athenian tragedy, and it is possible that his two Iphigenias in particular, at Aulis and Tauris, contained many parodies of the two plays of Euripides. I should conceive, however, that he adhered generally to the form of the ancient phlyaces; thus for example, he faithfully imitated the dialect of Tarentum;(1692) we may also be assured that he polished the native farces, so as to fit them for theatrical representation. These pieces were generally written in trimeter iambics, which Rhinthon, however, framed somewhat carelessly, as may be seen from a fragment of his transmitted to us, where addressing himself to his verses, he declares “that he did not give himself much trouble about them;”(1693) it is also possible that he mixed the iambic with other metres, as parodies, for the sake of contrast; thus, for instance, he appears to have employed the solemn hexameter in some very ludicrous passages.(1694) Rhinthon was succeeded in this species of parody by Sopatrus, Sciras,(1695) and Blæsus; the last-named poet, a native of Capreæ in Campania, wrote (as may be inferred from the title of his “Saturn”) after the Roman manners and religion had gained the ascendency; but he used only the ancient dialect, and he too, being called a serio-comic poet (σπουδογελοίων ποιητὴς), seems