of information to the Greeks, and had given them a taste for this science. Plutarch records as an example of the ostentation of Demetrius, the son of Antigonus I., that there was a robe a long time in weaving for him of most sumptuous magnificence: the figure of the world and all the heavenly bodies were to be represented upon it. Now this piece of tapestry was probably not intended for a robe, but for a useful and scientific ornament of his palace, and manifests a taste superior to mere shew and ostentation. Ptolemy, another of Alexander's generals, became as renowned for his patronage of learning and science as for his skill and success in war, and this taste descended to his successors.
Antigonus Gonatas was himself a proficient in astronomy, and an admirer of the works of Eudoxus. Putting that philosopher's description of the celestial sphere into the hands of Aratus, he commissioned him to render it into verse in imitation of Hesiod's "Works and Days." The task, which Aratus undertook, was to give the astronomical description of the heavens, according to Eudoxus, and to relieve the dull monotony of a mere catalogue of constellations and stars by poetical language: in other words, to deck the stiff formal limbs of Urania in the graceful flowing robes of Calliope[1]. And with great skill and ingenuity he has accomplished this undertaking. He has introduced so much of the fabulous history at-
- ↑ The king gave the poet a copy of the work of Eudoxus: ἅμα εἰπόντος "ὡς εὐδοξότερον ποιεῖς τὸν Εὔδοξον, ἐντείνας τὰ παρ᾽ αὐτῷ κείμενα μέτρῳ."
