Note 52:1 — INTRODUCTION.[vii:1]

Probably, as it seems to me, not Bion the poet, but a philosopher of that name,—a man of infamous character, an atheist in his professed belief, and remarkable for pithy and epigrammatic sayings, full of bitter humor and biting sarcasm, some of which are still extant. Horace speaks of those who find pleasure in Bioneis sermonibus et sale nigro.