X.ia J) "Hprt/cXJ/e, Hercules Gallicus; Tlioi rov ijX'iKTQov t) TMV KVKi'wi', l)e Electro sen Cy'jnv< ; Yltpi rod o'Ikoi', JJe Doviui ; lln/i Tuiv SiipdSijJi', JJe DipsacUbus ; Tvpciv- voKTOVog, Ti/rannicida (perhaps spurious) ; 'A7rofo;piir- ro/iivog, Abdicatus (attributed sometimes to Libanius); ^dXapii; vrpoiTog Kai SiinipoQ, Phaluris prior et alter; Myiflf tyKuii.tiov, Encomium Musccr ; Ylarpiciog tyKW- /.ttoi', Putriw Encomium. II. Critical Works. — AiKt] <^(i)V)]iVTtiJV, Judicium Vocalium; At^i<j)dvi](:, Lexipha- nes (considered by some as directed against the Onomas- ticon of Polhix, by others against Athenjeus) ; YIwq Sil laTopiai' avYypcKpeiv, Quomodo Historia sit conscriben- da, the best of Lucian's critical works ; 'PijTopwv SiSd- ffKaXog, Rhetorum Preceptor ; '^ivSoXoyitjrljg, Pseudo- logista ; Aij/ioa^cvovq tyKwfiiov, Demosthenis Encomi- zim (rejected by some as spurious) ; '^tvcoffO(picTTi](;, PseudosopihiMa (also attacked, and on better grounds than the preceding). III. Biographical Works. — ' Akk'^av^poQ J) '^tvdofiavTiQ, Alexander seu Pseudo- mantis; Arii-iutvaKTog fiioQ,Vita Bemonactis ; and ITfpi Tijg Ileptypivov TtXevriig, De Morte Peregrini. This last work, containing an account of the life and voluntary- auto-da-fe of Peregrinus Proteus, a fanatical cynic and apostate Christian, who publicly burnt himself from an impulse of vainglory about A.D. 165, is really, for us, the must important work under consideration; for Lucian here discharges his satire upon Cynicism and Christi- anity. Peregrinus, a perfectly contemptible man, after having committed the commonest and grossest crimes — adultery, sodomy, and parricide — joins the credulous Christians in Palestine, cunningly imposes on them, soon rises to the highest repute among them, and, becoming one of tlie confessors in prison, is loaded with presents by them, in fact, almost worshipped as a god, but is after- wards excommunicated for eating some forbidden food (probably meat of the idolatrous sacrifices), then casts himself into the arms of the Cynics, travels about every- where in the tilthiest style of that sect, and at last, about the year 165, in frantic thirst for fame, plunges into the flames of a funeral pile before the assembled populace of the town of Olympia for the triumph of philosophy. '• Perhaps this fiction of the self-burning," says Dr. Schaff {Church llistonj, i, 189), " was meant for a parody on the Christian martyrdom, possibly of I'olycarp, who about that time suffered death by fire at Smyrna. . . . An Epi- curean worldling and infidel, as Lucian was, could see in Christianity only one of the many vagaries and fol- lies of mankind, in the miracles only jugglerj-, in the belief of immortality an empty dream, and in the con- tempt of death and the brotherlv love of the Christians, to which he was constrained to testify, a siUy enthusi- asm." We certainly find in Lucian a singular combina- tion of impartiality and injustice. Wrongly interpre- ting rather than misrepresenting the Christian belief, he treats its advocates oftener with a compassionate smile than witli hatred. He nowhere urges persecution. He never calls Christ an impostor, as Celsus does, but a "crucified sophist,'' a term which he uses as often in a good as in a bad sense. But then, in the end, both the Christian and the heathen religions amount, in his view, to imposture; and there is in aU his writings, says Pressense {Early Years of Christianity, ii [N. Y. 1871, 12mo], 454), "scarcely a page wliich is not an in- sult to religion in itself. That l>y which he is mainly distinguished is what may be called his universal impi- ety, liis contempt of all greatness, goodness, or glory. He was the most accomplished disciple of the nil admi- rari scliool," and hence he has most aptly been termed the Voltaire of liis day (compare llagenliach, Kirchen- gcsch. d. ersten seeks Jahrh. | Lcipsic, l^!6i)] p. 101). It remains a (luestion simply whether in these contemptu- ous exhibitions of all religion he aimed merely to satir- ize the failings of the advocates of religious belief, or whether he actually himself believed riothing. Tlie lat- ter must certainly be doubted when we consider Ids expose of Pyrrlionism (q. v.) ; and we are inclined to accept as most just the treatment he has received at the
hands of Thomas Dyer, in Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Biog. and Mythol. ii, 814, col. ii, based on Lucian's own statement in his ' Witvc, (§ 20), and in his Alexander (§ 54), where he indignantly spurns the charge of immoral- ity brought against him, Mr. Dyer concedes that Luci- an was " a hater of pride, falsehood, and vainglory, and an ardent admirer of truth, simplicity, and all that is natu- rally amiable." (Comp. however, the dissertations by Krebs, Dc Malitioso Luciani Coiisilio Religionem Chris- tianam scurrili dicacitate vanam et ridiculam reddendi [Opusc. Acad. p. 308 sq.], and Eichstadt, Lucianus niun, scriptis suis adjucare voluerit Religionem Christianam [Jena, 1822].) IV. Romances. — Under this head may be classed the tale entitled Aovkioq ») "Ovog, Lucius sive Asinus, and the 'AXyiSrovg laropiac Xuyog a Kai j8', Ve7-ce Historiic. The adventures related in the latter work are of the most extravagant kind, but show great fertility of invention. It was composed, as the author tells us in the beginning, to ridicide the authors of ex- travagant tales, including Homer's Odyssey, the Indica of Ctesias, and the wonderful accounts of lambulus of the things contained in the great sea. The adventure with the robbers in the cave is thought to have sug- gested the well-known scene in Gil Bias. That the Verce Hktorice supplied hints to Rabelais and Swift is sufficiently obvious, not only from the nature and ex- travagance of the fiction, but from the lurking satire. V. Dialogues. — These dialogues, which form the great bulk of his works, are of very various degrees of merit, and are treated in the greatest possible variety of style, from seriousness down to the broadest humor and buf- foonery. Their subjects and tendencies, too, vary con- siderably. Still we vany divide them into three classes : first, those which are more exclusively directed against the heathen mythology ; next, those which attack the anciest philosophy ; and, lastly, those in which both the preceding objects are combined, or which, having no such tendency, are mere satires on the manners of the day, and the follies and vices natural to mankind. In the first class may be placed Ilpopi]5i(vg i] KavKacoQ, Pro- metheus seu Caucasus ; 'EvdXioi AtdXoyoi, Dei Marini; TitvQ 'EXeyxdp^svog, Jupiter Confutatus ; Ztvg rpayi^tioe, Jupiter Tr-agadus, which strikes at the very existence of Jupiter and that of the other deities ; Qiwv iKKXtjaia, Deorum Consilium ; Tu npijg Kpovoi', Saturncdia. To the second class belong Biiov irpaaic, Vitarum A uctio : in this humorous piece the heads of the diflferent sects are put up to sale, Kermes being the auctioneer. The 'AXievg »"; 'AvajiiovvTfg, Piscator seu Reviviscentes, is a sort of apology for the preceding piece, and may be reckoned among Lucian's best dialogues; EppuTipog is chiefly an attack upon the Stoics, but its design is also to show the impossibility of becoming a tnie philoso- pher; Euvoi'xog, Eunitchus ; (i>iXo'ipivc))g, on the love of falsehood natural to some men purely for its own sake. Some commentators have thought that the Chris- tian miracles were alluded to in § 13 and § 16, but this does not seem probable; the Apmrsrai, Fugitivi, is di- rected against the Cynics, by whom Lucian seems to have been attacked for his life of Peregrinus; Sc/^— o- rrtov 1} AaTri^ai, Convivium seu Lapitho', is one of Lu- cian's most humorous attacks on the pliilosophers. The tliird and more miscellaneous class, containing some of his best, includes Tifiwv i] piadv^pwirog, Timon, which. may perhaps be regarded as Lucian's masterpiece. The NfKrpi/coi AidXoyoi. Diedogi Mortuorum, are perhaps the best known of all Lucian's works. The subject affords great scope for moral reflection, and for satire on the vanity of human juirsuits. Among modern writers, these dialogues have been imitated by Fontenelle and lord Lyttelton. The MivnnTog i] 'SiKnofiavnia, AV- cyomanteia, bears some analogy to the Dialogues of the Dead: it wants, however, Lucian's pungency, and Du Saul thought that it was written by Menippus himself The 'iKapo/ifviTnTog y 'VwepvirtxXog, Icaro-Menippvs, on the contrary, is in Lucian's best vein, and a master- piece of Aristophanic humor. Xdpwv i] iinaKOTrovvTig,