1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Symphosius

SYMPHOSIUS, or Symposius, the name given to the author of a collection of 100 riddles of uncertain date, but probably composed in the 4th or 5th century A.D. They have been attributed to Lactantius, and identified with his Symposium, but this view is not generally accepted. The style and versification of the riddles, each of which consists of three hexameter lines, are good. They were written to form part of the entertainment at the Saturnalia.

Text in E. Bährens, Poetae latini minores, vol. iv.; there is a good French metrical version by E. F. Corpet (1868); monograph by W. T. Paul (Berlin, 1854); see also Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Literature, 449 (Eng. trans., 1900).