an colony as founded by some Parthenidae or slaves'
children, as they were called, a statement which seems to have roused the
indignation of Timaeus, who went to a good deal of trouble to confute
this theory. He does so on the following grounds:--

First of all, he points out that in the ancient days the Greeks had no
slaves at all, so the mention of them in the matter is an anachronism;
and next he declares that he was shown in the Greek city of Locris
certain ancient inscriptions in which their relation to the Italian city
was expressed in terms of the position between parent and child, which
showed also that mutual rights of citizenship were accorded to each city.
Besides this, he appeals to various questions of improbability as regards
their international relationship, on which Polybius takes diametrically
opposite grounds which hardly call for discussion. And in favour of his
own view he urges two points more: first, that the Lacedaemonians being
allowed furlough for the purpose of seeing their wives at home, it was
unlikely that the Locrians should not have had the same privilege; and
next, that the Italian Locrians knew nothing of the Aristotelian version
and had, on the contrary, very severe laws against adulterers, runaway
slaves and the like. Now, most of these questions rest on mere
probability, which is always such a subjective canon that an appeal to it
is rarely conclusive. I would note, however, as regards the inscriptions
which, if genuine, would of course have settled the matter, that Polybius
looks on them as a mere invention on the part of Timaeus, who, he
remarks, gives no details about them, though, as a rule, he is so over-
anxious to give chapter and verse for everything. A somewhat more
interesting point is that where he attacks Timaeus for the introduction
of fictitious speeches into his narrative; for on this point Polybius
seems to be far in advance of the opinions held by literary men on the
subject not merely in his own day, but for centuries after. Herodotus
had introduced speeches avowedly dramatic and fictitious. Thucydides
states clearly that, where he was unable to find out what people really
said, he put down what they ought to have said. Sallust alludes, it is
true, to the fact of the speech he puts into the mouth of the tribune
Memmius being essentially genuine, but the speeches given in the senate
on the occasion of the Catilinarian conspiracy are very different from
the same