correctly defines Milesian fables to have been originally 'certain tales or novels, composed by Aristides of Miletus'; gay in matter and graceful in manner. 'They were translated into Latin by the historian Sisenna, the friend of Atticus, and they had a great success at Rome. Plutarch, in his life of Crassus, tells us that after the defeat of Carhes (Carrhæ?) some Milesiacs were found in the baggage of the Roman prisoners. The Greek text; and the Latin translation have long been lost. The only surviving fable is the tale of Cupid and Psyche,[1] which Apuleius calls 'Milesius sermo,' and it makes us deeply regret the disappearance of the others.' Besides this there are the remains of Apollodorus and Conon, and a few traces to be found in Pausanias, Athenæus, and the scholiasts.
I do not, therefore, agree with Blair, with the dictionaries, or with M. Deriége. Miletus, the great maritime city of Asiatic Ionia, was of old the meeting-place of the East and the West. Here the Phoenician trader from the Baltic would meet the Hindu wandering to Intra, from Extra, Gangem; and the Hyperborean would step on shore side by side with the Nubian and the Æthiop. Here was
- ↑ Metamorphoseon, seu de Asino Aureo, libri Xl. The well known and beautiful episode is in the fourth. the fifth, and the sixth books.
