The Poseidonians forgot the Greek language br after so many centuries of mingling br with Tyrrhenians, Latins, and other foreigners. br The only thing surviving from their ancestors br was a Greek festival, with beautiful rites, br with lyres and flutes, contests and wreaths. br And it was their habit toward the festival's end br to tell each other about their ancient customs br and once again to speak Greek names br that only few of them still recognized. br And so their festival always had a melancholy ending br because they remebered that they too were Greeks, br they too once upon a time were citizens of Magna Graecia; br and how low they'd fallen now, what they'd become, br living and speaking like barbarians, br cut off so disastrously from the Greek way of life.br br Constantine P.