used (144) to call Ktistaes. as if he had been the planter of the island. And observing from his room a great company of people with torches, assembled at the tomb of this Masgabas, who died the year before, he uttered very distinctly this verse, which he made extempore.
Ktistou de tumbo, eisoro pyroumenon.
Blazing with lights I see the founder’s tomb.
Then turning to Thrasyllus, a companion of Tiberius, who reclined on the other side of the table, he asked him, who knew nothing about the matter, what poet he thought was the author of that verse; and on his hesitating to reply, he added another:
Oras phaessi Masgaban timomenon.
Honor’d with torches Masgabas you see;
and put the same question to him concerning that likewise. The latter replying, that, whoever might be the author, they were excellent verses 257, he set up a great laugh, and fell into an extraordinary vein of jesting upon it. Soon afterwards, passing over to Naples, although at that time greatly disordered in his bowels by the frequent returns of