No doubt, my dear Celsus,

The scholiast thinks this Celsus the writer of the True Word, an attack upon Christianity, to which Origen replied in his eight books contra Celsum. He is certainly identical with the man whom Origen himself believed to be the author of that work, who, he says, was an Epicurean living under Hadrian and the Antonines, author also of a treatise against sorcery (vide c. 21 and note). And the True Word itself, a large part of which is preserved in Origen, seems to have been written about a.d. 180. But as Origen is not sure who wrote it, and as it is considered Platonic rather than Epicurean in character, the prevailing opinion is that its author is not the Celsus of Lucian, but an otherwise unknown Platonist of the same name and date.

I blush for both of us, I confess, both for you and for myself—for you because you want a consummate rascal perpetuated in memory and in writing, and for myself because I am devoting my energy to such an end, to the exploits of a man who does not deserve to have polite people read about him, but rather to have the motley crowd in a vast amphitheatre see him being torn to pieces by foxes or apes. Yet if anyone brings this reproach against us, we shall be able to refer to an apt precedent. Arrian, the disciple of Epictetus, a Roman of the highest distinction, and a life-long devotee of letters, laid himself open to the same charge, and so can plead our cause as well as his own; he thought fit, you know, to record the life of Tillorobus, the brigand.

There is no life of Tillorobus among the extant writings of Arrian, and we know nothing of him from any other source. His name is given in the y group of MSS. as Tilliborus, but compare C.I.L. vi, 15295.

First I shall draw you a word-picture of the man himself, making as close a likeness as I can, although I am not particularly good at drawing. As regards his person—in order that I may exhibit this also to ou—he was tall and handsome in appearance, and really godlike; his skin was fair, his beard not very thick; his long hair was in part natural, in part false, but very similar, so that most people did not detect that it was not his own. His eyes shone with a great glow of fervour and enthusiasm; his voice was at once very sweet and very clear; and in a word, no fault could be found with him in any respect as far as all that went.

Such, then, was his outward appearance; but his soul and his mind—O Heracles Forfender! O Zeus, Averter of Mischief! O Twin Brethren, our Saviours! may it be the fortune of our enemies and ill-wishers to encounter and have to do with the like of him! In understanding, quick-wittedness, and penetration he was far beyond everyone else; and activity of mind, readiness to learn, retentiveness, natural aptitude for studies—all these qualities were his, in every case to the full. But he made the worst possible use of them, and with these noble instruments at his service soon became the most perfect rascal of all those who have been notorious far and wide for villainy, surpassing the Cercopes, surpassing Eurybatus, or Phrynondas, or Aristodemus, or Sostratus.

The Cercopes were two impish pests who crossed the ath of Heracles to their disadvantage. For the little that is known about the other typical rascals, see the Index.

While he was still a mere boy, and a very handsome one, as could be inferred from the sere and yellow leaf of him, and could also be learned by hearsay from those who recounted his story, he trafficked freely in his attractiveness and sold his company to those who sought it. Among others, he had an admirer who was a quack, one of those who advertise enchantments, miraculous incantations, charms for your love-affairs, “sendings”

The word is borrowed from Kipling. A “sending” is a “visitation,” seen from a different point of view.