THE “DEIPNOSOPHISTS,” or Banquet of the Learned, of Athenæus, is a collection of essays in dialogue form, embodying a wealth of poetical quotations, some of them from authors whose works, except for such quotations, would have been wholly lost. It is for this that the work has been chiefly valued by scholars; but its entire freedom from the restraints of logical consecutiveness, the suddenness with which it changes the subject, and the great variety of familiar topics it discusses, gives it a charm of its own for those who love the curious rather than the elegant. Athenæus lived in the third century A.D., and it is believed that Alexandria was his birthplace. He lived also at Rome, but his “Deipnosophists” was composed in Greek and it is with Greek literature that he chiefly deals. Those who have made the count say that he quotes from “over 800 writers and 2,400 distinct writings.”