text:  An epigram is still extant attributed to the Emperor Leo the philosopher [8] in which it is landed as an example of chaste and faithful love: and it was esteemed as a model of romantic composition from the elegance of its style and diction in which Heretius ranks the author above Heliodorus though he at the same time severely criticizes him for want of originality accusing him of having borrowed all the interesting passages in his work from the _Ethiopics_