SYMPHOSIUS, or SYMPOSIUS  , the name given to the author of a collection of loo riddles of uncertain date, but probably composed in the 4th or 5th century A.D . They have been attributed to Lactantius, and identified with his Symposium, but this view is not generally accepted . The style and versification of the riddles, each of which consists of three hexameter lines, are good . They were written to form part of the entertainment at the Saturnalia . Text in E . Bahrens, Poetae latini minores, vol. iv.; there is a good French metrical version by E . F . Corpet (1868) ; monograph by W . T . Paul (Berlin, 1854) ; see also Teuffel, His'. of Roman Literature, 449 (Eng. trans., 1900) .