As in books on geography, Sossius Senecio, the writers crowd the countries of which they know nothing into the furthest margins of their maps, and write upon them legends such as, In this direction lie waterless deserts full of wild beasts; or, Unexplored morasses; or, Here it is as cold as Scythia; or, A frozen sea; so I, in my writings on Parallel Lives, go through that peri-od of time where history rests on the firm basis of facts, and may truly say, All beyond this is portentous and fabulous, inhabited by poets and mythologers, and there is nothing true or certain....