red to enter into competition. Not content with the eloquence of
his own times, he held it absurd not to follow the best examples of a
former age. _Est enim mihi cum Cicerone aemulatio, nec sum contentus
eloquentia saeculi nostri. Nam stultissimum credo, ad imitandum non
optima quaeque praeponere._ Lib. i. epist. 5.

[b] Nicetes was a native of Smyrna, and a rhetorician in great
celebrity. Seneca says (_Controversiarum_, lib. iv. cap. 25), that his
scholars, content with hearing their master, had no ambition to be
heard themselves. Pliny the younger, among the commendations which he
bestows on a friend, mentions, as a praise-worthy part of his
character, that he attended the lectures of Quintilian and Nicetes
Sacerdos, of whom Pliny himself was at that time a constant follower.
_Erat non studiorum tantum, verum etiam studiosorum amantissimus, ac
prope quotidie ad audiendos, quos tunc ego frequentabam, Quintilianum
et Niceten Sacerdotem, ventitabat._ Lib. vi. epist. 6.

[c] Mitylene was the chief city of the isle of Lesbos, in the AEgean
Sea, near the coast of Asia. The place at this day is called
_Metelin_, subject to the Turkish dominion. _Ephesus_ was a city of
_Ionia_, in the Lesser Asia, now called _Ajaloue_ by the Turks, who
are masters of the place.

[d] Domitius Afer and Julius Africanus have been already mentioned,
section xiii. note [d]. Both are highly praised by Quintilian. For
Asinius Pollio, see s. xii. note [e].

Section XVI.

[a] Quintilian puts the same question; and, according to him,
Demosthenes is the last of the ancients among the Greeks, as Cicero
is among the Romans. See _Quintilian_, lib. viii. cap. 5.

[b] The siege of Troy is supposed to have been brought to a conclusion
eleven hundred and ninety-three years before Christian aera. From that
time to the sixth year of Vespasian (A.U.C. 828), when this Dialogue
was had, the number of years that intervened was about 1268; a period
which, with propriety, may be said to be little less than 1300 years.

[c] Demosthenes died, before Christ 322 years, A.U.C. 432. From that
time to the sixth of Vespasian, A.U.C. 828, the intervening space was
about 396 years. Aper calls it little more than 400 years; but in a
conversation-piece strict accuracy is not to be expected.

[d] In the rude state of astronomy, which prevailed during many ages
of the world, it was natural that mankind should differ in their
computation of time. The ancient Egyptians, ac