INTRODUCTION
Lucian was born at Samosata in Commagene and calls himself a Syrian; he may or may not have been of Semitic stock. The exact duration of his life is unknown, but it is probable that he was born not long before 125 A.D. and died not long after 180. Something of his life-history is given us in his own writings, notably in the Dream, the Doubly Indicted, the Fisher, and the Apology. If what he tells us in the Dream is to be taken seriously (and it is usually so taken), he began his career as apprentice to his uncle, a sculptor, but soon became disgusted with his prospects in that calling and gave it up for Rhetoric, the branch of the literary profession then most in favour. Theoretically the vocation of a rhetorician was to plead in court, to compose pleas for others and to teach the art of pleading; but in practice his vocation was far less important in his own eyes and those of the public than his avocation, which consisted in going about from place to place
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