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INTRODUCTION

with an οὐ φροντὶς Ἱπποκλείδῃ. Judged from his own stand-point, he is successful; not only in his own times but in all the ensuing ages his witty, well-phrased comments on life, more akin to comedy than to true satire, have brought him the applause that he craved.

Among the eighty-two pieces that have come down to us under the name of Lucian, there are not a few of which his authorship has been disputed. Certainly spurious are Halcyon, Nero, Philopatris, and Astrology; and to these, it seems to me, the Consonants at Law should be added. Furthermore, Demosthenes, Charidemus, Cynic, Love, Octogenarians, Hippias, Ungrammatical Man, Swiftfoot, and the epigrams are generally considered spurious, and there are several others (Disowned and My Country in particular) which, to say the least, are of doubtful authenticity.

Beside satiric dialogues, which form the bulk of his work, and early rhetorical writings, we have from the pen of Lucian two romances, A True Story and Lucius, or the Ass (if indeed the latter is his), some introductions to readings and a number of miscellaneous treatises. Very few of his writings can be dated with any accuracy. An effort to group them on a chronological basis has been made by

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