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Aristophanes being required, be observed that the bestpoet had pleased the people the least. The king andthe whole multitude expressed their great indignation atthis opinion, hut he rose and besought that they wouldallow him to speak. Silence being obtained, he toldthem that one only of the competitors was a poet, thatthe others had recited other men’s compositions, andthat the judges ought not to decide upon thefts but uponcompositions. The people were astonished, and theking in doubt; but Aristophanes relying on his memory,quoted a vast number of books on certain shelves in thelibrary, and comparing them with what had been recited,made the writers confess that they had stolen fromthem. The king then ordered them to be proceededagainst for the theft, and after their condemnation dis-missed them with ignominy. Aristophanes, however,was honoured with great rewards, and appointed libra-rian. Some time afterwards Zoilus of Macedonia, whoassumed the cognomen of Homeromastix, came to Alex-andria, and recited before the king his compositions inderogation of the Iliad and Odyssey. When Ptolemyperceived that the father of poetry and all philology,whose works are in esteem throughout all nations, was,because out of the reach of reply, abused by this man,he was enraged and did not deign to answer him.Zoilus, however, remaining some time longer in thecountry, oppressed with poverty, besought the king tobestow something on him. The king is said to haveanswered, that Homer, who had been dead more than athousand years, had been the means during that periodof affording a livelihood to thousands ; that he, there-fore, who boasted that he possessed greater talent,ought to be able to support, not only himself, but manyother persons. Having been condemned as a parricide,his death is variously related. Some have written thathe was crucified by Philadelphus, some that he wasstoned at Chios, others that he was burnt alive at

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