(
Of the author nothing is known. It has been conjectured, that he is the same as Aristaenetus
of Nicaea, to whom several of Libanius' Epistles are addressed, and who lost his life in the
earthquake in Nicomedia,
These Letters are taken almost entirely from Plato, Lucian, Philostratus, and Plutarch; and so owe to their reputed author Aristaenetus nothing but the connexion. They are short unconnected stories of love adventures ; and if the language in occasional sentences, or even paragraphs, is terse and elegant, yet on the whole they are only too insipid to be disgusting.
These were first edited by