Note 28 — BOOK I.
Henry Davis translation
In the Panathenæan, Hephæstian, and Promethean festivals, it was customary for young men to run with torches or lamps lighted from the sacrificial altar; and in this contest that person only was victorious, whose lamp remained unextinguished in the race. We are here forcibly reminded of the figure used by Plato in the Laws, vi. p. 776 b, and also of Lucretius, ii. verse 78:—
Inque brevi spatio mutantur sæcla animantum,
Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada tradunt.