[55] Alexander of Aphrodisias, _de Fato_, 1, says that he obtained his professorship on the _testimony_, ὑπὸ τῆς μαρτυρίας, of Severus and Caracalla. [56] The existence of a competition appears in Lucian, _Eunuchus_, 3, 5: the fullest account is that of Eunapius, _Prohæres._ pp. 79 sqq. [57] Eunapius, _ibid._ p. 84. [58] Olympiodorus, ap. Phot. _Biblioth._ 80; S. Greg. Naz. _Orat._ 43 (20). 15, vol. i. p. 782; Liban. _de fort. sua_, vol. i. p. 14. The admission was probably the occasion of some academical sport: the novice was marched in mock procession to the baths, whence he came out with his gown on. It was something like initiation into a religious guild or order. There was a law against any one who assumed the philosopher’s dress without authority, “indebite et insolenter,” _Cod. Theodos._ 13. 3. 7. [59] The last traces are in the Christian poets: for example, in Sidonius Apollinaris († 482), _Carm._ xxiii. 211, ed. Luetjohann, “quicquid rhetoricæ institutionis, quicquid grammaticalis aut palæstræ est;” in Ennodius († 521), _Carm._ ccxxxiv. p. 182, ed. Vogel, and in _Ep._ 94, which is a letter of thanks to a grammarian for having successfully instructed the writer’s nephew; in Venantius Fortunatus († 603), who speaks of himself as “Parvula grammaticæ lambens refluamina guttæ, Rhetorici exiguum prælibans gurgitis haustum,” _V. Martini_, i. 29, 30, ed. Leo; but there are traces in the same poets of the antagonism between classical and Christian learning which ultimately led to the disappearance of the former, e.g. Fortunatus speaks of Martin as “doctor apostolicus vacuans ratione sophistas,” _V. Martini_, i. 139. [60] “La période bénédictine,” Leon Maitre, _Les écoles épiscopales et monastiques de l’Occident_, p. 173. [61] “Dictæ per carmina sortes,” Hor. _A. P._ 403. But it may be inferred from the title of Plutarch’s treatise, Περὶ τοῦ μὴ χρᾶν ἔμμετρα νῦν τὴν Πυθίαν, that the practice had ceased in the second century. [62] Cf. e.g.. Pindar, _Frag._ 127 (118), μαντεύεο μοῖσα προφατεύσω δ’ ἐγώ; and, in later times, Ælius Aristides, vol. iii. p. 22, ed. Cant. [63] Dio Chrysostom, _Orat._ i. vol. i. p. 12, ed. Dind. [64] Id. _Orat._ xxxvi. vol. ii. p. 59: καί πού τις ἐπίπνοια θείας φύσεώς τε καὶ ἀληθείας καθάπερ αὐγὴ πυρὸς ἐξ ἀφανοῦς λάμψαντος.