53. Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15, 16, 17) pleads their cause
with gentle and insinuating rhetoric. From the earliest age
such feasts had enlivened the country: and those of Bacchus
(Georgic. ii. 380) had produced the theatre of Athens. See
Godefroy, ad loc., Liban., and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p.
284 [ed. Lugd. 1665].