contains some two hundred and sixty jokes.

 Written in Greek by Hierocles and Philagrius, it dates to the 3rd or 4th century AD, and contains some two   hundred and sixty  jokes.


 Considering humor from our own culture as recent as the nineteenth century is at times baffling to us today, the humor is surprisingly familiar.

 They had different stereotypes: the absent-minded professor, the eunuch, and people with hernias or bad breath were favorites.

 A lot of the jokes play on the idea of knowing who characters are.
A barber, a bald man and an absent minded professor eventually take a journey together.

 They have to camp overnight, so decide to take turns watching the luggage.

 When it's the barber's turn, he gets bored, so amuses himself by shaving the head of the professor.

When the professor is woken up for his turn, he feels his head, and says "How stupid is that barber? He's woken up the bald man instead of me."


There is even a joke similar to Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" sketch a man buys a slave, who dies shortly afterwards.

further,When he complains to the slave merchant, he is told "He didn't die when I owned him.

 Comic Jim Bowen has presented them to an amazing modern audience.
 "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in people's acts nowadays, slightly updated.

 They put in a motor car instead of a chariot - some of them are Tommy Cooperesque.