One hastens to his native land though he be an islander, and though he could lead a life of ease elsewhere. If immortality be offered him he will not accept it, preferring a grave in his native land, and the smoke thereof is brighter to his eyes than fire elsewhere. This passage is full of allusions to the Odyssey. Ithaca, “rough, but good for breeding men” (9, 27), is not fit for horses (4, 601). Odysseus, the islander, who might have been happy, even immortal, with Circe (5, 135; 2U8), will not accept immortality, for his native land is dearer than all else to him (9, 27 ff.) and he longs to see the very smoke arising from it (1, 57).

To such an extent do all men seem to prize their own country that lawgivers everywhere, as one may note, have prescribed exile as the severest penalty for the greatest transgressions. And it cannot be said that in this view lawgivers differ from commanders. On the contrary, in battle no other exhortation of the marshalled men is so effective as “You are fighting for your native land!” No man who hears this is willing to be a coward, for the name of native land makes even the dastard brave. This treatise (evidently compiled in haste for a special occasion) cannot fairly be fathered on Lucian. It is valuable, however, as a document, and not uninteresting in spots.