Particularly of the LEtTE RllTM A, 1 45 



" in that order wherein the feats of precedence are fixed, but 

 " alfo fully underftood the qualities and powers which belong 

 " to each of us. And on you, ye Judges, he hath conferred 

 " the larger portion of honour, inafmuch as you are capable 

 •" of expreffing a found by yourfelves ; on the femivowels, the 

 " next fhare to yours, becaufe they require a fmall degree of 

 " your affiflance, in order to be diftindly heard ; and he hath 

 " allotted the lead of all to fome who, by themfelves, poflefs 

 '* no fort of found whatfoever *. Wherefore, it is the province 

 " of you Vowels to be the guardians of thefe laws. 



" But this Tav, (for I have not a more opprobrious appel- 

 " lation for him. than his own name f ) who, unlefs, by Jupiter ! 

 " two of yourfelves, I mean"AX(pa and T, excellent both, and 

 " feemly to behold, had come propitious to his aid, would not 

 " even have been heard, — this very culprit dares to injure me 

 " in a more atrocious manner than ever any other of the letters, 

 *' by expelling me. from, my native nouns and verb.s, at the 

 " famie time chafing % me away from conjundlions and prepo- 

 *' fitions, infomuch that I am no longer able to endure his ex- 

 " ceflive rapacity. But it is now time to ftate whence, and 

 " from what circumftances, thefe outrages originated. 



" I ONCE was fojourning at Cybelum, an agreeable enough 

 " little town, a colony, as is reported, of Athenians, and took 

 " along with me the beft of my neighbours, the robufl 'Pu. 

 " I lodged at the houfe of a certain comic poet, whofe name 

 •' was Lysimachus, by extradion evidently a Boeotian, but 

 '* who was ambitious of pafling for a native of the very centre 

 " of Attica. While I remained in the houfe of this landlord, 

 " I detedled the avarice of this fame Tuv. As long as, by de- 

 *' priving me of my congenial friends, he feized only on a few 



Vol. II. T " of 



• See Aristotle's definition of a Vowel, a Semivowel and a Mute, p. 123.. 



f See below, p. 149. 



t I have adopted the reading propofed by Hemstkrhuis, vix. »m>M»i and exJiaJJar, 



