Phalereus, who, after
ruling Athens with great praise, was banished from his country, and fled
to Ptolemy Soter, under whom he consoled himself for the loss of power
in the enjoyment of literary leisure. He was at the same time the most
learned and the most polished of orators. He brought learning from the
closet into the forum; and, by the soft turn which he gave to public
speaking, made that sweet and lovely which had before been grave and
severe. Cicero thought him the great master in the art of speaking, and
seems to have taken him as the model upon which he wished to form his
own style. He wrote upon philosophy, history, government, and poetry;
but the only one of his works which has reached our time is his treatise
on elocution; and the careful thought which he there gives to the
choice of words and to the form of a sentence, and even the parts of a
sentence, shows the value then set upon style. Indeed he seems rather
to have charmed his hearers by the softness of his words than to have
roused them to noble deeds by the strength of his thoughts. He not only
advised Ptolemy Soter what books he should buy, but which he should
read, and he chiefly recommended those on government and policy; and
it is alike to the credit of the king and of the librarian, that he
put before him books which, from their praise of freedom and hatred of
tyrants, few persons would even speak of in the presence of a king.
But Demetrius had also been consulted by Soter about the choice of a
successor, and had given his opinion that the crown ought to be left
to his eldest son, and that wars would arise between his children if
it were not so left; hence we can hardly wonder that, on the death of
Soter, Demetrius should have lost his place at the head of the museum,
and been ordered to leave Alexandria. He died, as courtiers say, in
disgrace; and he was buried near Diospolis in the Busirite nome of the
Delta. According to one account he was put to death by the bite of
an asp, in obedience to the new king's orders, but this story is not
generally credited; although this was not an uncommon way of inflicting
death.

[Illustration: 118.jpg ANUBIS, GOD OF THE LOWER WORLD]

Soon after this we find Zenodotus of Ephesus filling the office of
librarian to the museum. He was a poet, who, with others, had been
employed by Soter in the education of his children. He is also known as
the first of those Alexandrian critics who turned their thoughts towards