and had a
considerable gift of humour. Had he lived to mature age, he would
probably have left some brilliant literary work. But shortly after his
visit to Antioch, he led an expedition into Persia, and with his usual
disregard of danger, entered the battle without his armour, and was
mortally wounded.

We read that the Roman girls were very fond of amusing themselves in
their leisure hours by making "scirpi" or riddles. They do not seem to
have indulged much in puns, or to have attempted anything very
intricate, but rather to have aimed at testing knowledge and memory. We
have few specimens remaining of their art, but such as we have are of
that early kind, which demand some special information for their
solutions. Aulus Gellius has preserved one "old by Hercules," which
turns on the legend that when Tarquinius Superbus was installing Jupiter
at the Capitol, all the other gods were ready to leave except Terminus,
who being by his character immovable, and having no legs, refused to
depart.[31] Two other specimens are found in Virgil's bucolics:--

"Say in what lands grow flowers inscribed with names
Of kings--and Phyllis shall be yours alone,"

referring to the hyacinth, on whose petals the word Ajax was supposed to
be found. The responding couplet runs:--

"Say, and my great Apollo thou shalt be,
Where heaven's span extends but three ells wide;"

the answer to which is not known.

Probably some riddles of an earlier date may be incorporated in the book
of Symposius. Nothing is known of the life of this author, and it has
been suggested that the word should be Symposium or the "Banquet"--these
enigmas being supposed to be delivered after dinner. But most
authorities consider Symposius to have lived in the fourth century,
although an examination of his prosody might lead us to place him not
earlier than the fifth. Very few of the riddles are really ingenious;
among the best we may reckon:--

"Letters sustain me--yet I know them not,
I live on books, and yet I never read,
The Muses I've devoured and gained no knowledge."

This is tolerably self-evident, but some require special information
as:--

"You can behold what you can scarce believe
There is but one eye, yet a thousand heads,
Who sells what he has, whence shall he get what he has not?"

Few would ever guess that this referred to a one-eyed man selling
garlic. But the greater number of these conceits are merely emblematic
des