ity, paints a
lamentable picture of the condition of the pagan world. He borrowed from
Justin and other writers, and lived in the fifth century.

Rhetoric continued to be cultivated, but eloquence no longer possessed
the power which it held under the Republic. The speeches now delivered
were chiefly declamations upon unimportant themes. M. Annaeus Seneca, the
father of the philosopher, came to Rome from his native city Corduba, in
Spain, during the reign of Augustus, and became a famous rhetorician. M.
Fabius Quintilianus, a greater name in literature, was born A.D. 42, at
Calgurris, in Spain, but, as was customary with men of merit at that
period, went up to Rome, and became celebrated as a teacher of rhetoric.
He was a person of excellent character, and, besides practicing at the
bar, rose to the consulship. Having passed many years in politics or the
law, Quintilian at last returned to his old profession, and in the close
of his life gave himself wholly to letters. He now wrote his work upon
oratory, _Libri duodecim Institutionis Oratoriae_. In this valuable work
he seeks to restore the purity of the language, inculcates simplicity,
and shows an excellent taste. The younger Pliny was also a famous orator
or declaimer.

The Romance, or modern novel, is also thought to have begun in the first
century with the satirical tale ascribed to Petronius Arbiter, or
perhaps with the translation of the Milesian tales of Aristides from the
Greek by Sisenna. The _Petronii Arbitri Satiricon_ is a romance in prose
and verse, and was probably written in the first century by an author of
whom nothing is known. It relates the adventures of a certain
_Encolopius_, and satirizes the vices and follies of the age. The
language of this work is pure, the wit lively, but indecent: only a
portion, however, of the _Satiricon_ has been preserved. During the age
of the Antonines arose _Appuleius_, the best known of the ancient
writers of tales. He was born at Madaura, in Africa, but went to
Carthage, and from thence to Athens, where he was initiated into the
Grecian mysteries, and studied the Platonic philosophy. Appuleius was an
agreeable speaker, and had filled his mind with the learning of his age;
but his fame with posterity rests upon his novel _Metamorphoseon_, in
which he strives to correct the vices of his contemporaries. In this
work a vicious young man is transformed into an ass, under which form he
goes through many amusing adventures