to the
philosophical rules of any but the Epicureans." It was a good deal read
and talked about; and three hundred years afterwards Plutarch thought it
not a waste of time to write against it at some length.

At a time when books were few, and far too dear to be within reach of
the many, and indeed when the number of those who could read must have
been small, other means were of course taken to meet the thirst after
knowledge; and the chief of these were the public readings in the
theatre. This was not overlooked by Phila-delphus, who employed
Hegesias to read Herodotus, and Hermophantus to read Homer, the earliest
historian and the earliest poet, the two authors who had taken deepest
root in the minds of the Greeks. These public readings, which were
common throughout Greece and its colonies, had not a little effect on
the authors. They then wrote for the ear rather than the eye, to be
listened to rather than to be read, which was one among the causes of
Greek elegance and simplicity of style.

Among others who were brought to Alexandria by the fame of Philadelphus'
bounty was Zoilus, the grammarian, whose ill-natured criticism on
Homer's poems had earned for him the name of Homeromastix, or the
scourge of Homer. He read his criticisms to Philadelphus, who was so
much displeased with his carping and unfair manner of finding fault,
that he even refused to relieve him when in distress. The king told him,
that while hundreds had earned a livelihood by pointing out the beauties
of the Iliad and Odyssey in their public readings, surely one person who
was so much wiser might be able to live by pointing out the faults.

Timon, a tragic poet, was also one of the visitors to this court; but,
as he was more fond of eating and drinking than of philosophy, we need
not wonder at our knowing nothing of his tragedies, or at his not
being made a professor by Philadelphus. But he took his revenge on the
better-fed philosophers of the court, in a poem in which he calls them
literary fighting-cocks, who were being fattened by the king, and were
always quarrelling in the coops of the museum.

The Alexandrian men of science and letters maintained themselves, some
few by fees received from their pupils, others as professors holding
salaries in the museum, and others by civil employments under the
government. There was little to encourage in them the feelings of noble
pride or independence. The first rank in Alexandria was held by the
ci