Dios Rome, Volume 1 | Page 5

they are not all, by any means, of equal value. First come Mediceus A (referred to in this book as Ma), Vaticanus A, Parisinus A, and Venetus A (Va) of the first class; then Mediceus B of the second class; finally, Parisinus B, Escorialensis, Turinensis, Vaticanus B, and Venetus B, with the mongrel Vesontinus, which occupies a position in this group best designated, perhaps, as 2-1/2.
Vaticanus A has been copied from Mediceus A, and Parisinus A from Vaticanus A, so that they are practically one with their archetype. Venetus A is of equal age and authority with Mediceus A. One can not now get back of these two codices. There is none of remoter date for Dio save the parchment Cod. Vat. 1288, containing most of Books Seventy-eight and Seventy-nine,--a portion of the work for the moment not under discussion. Coming to the second class, Mediceus B is a joint product of copying from the two principal MSS. just mentioned. In the third class, Parisinus B is a copy of Mediceus B with a little at the opening taken from Mediceus A. This was the version selected as a guide by Robert Estienne in the first important edition of Dio ever published (A.D. 1548). All the rest, Escorialensis, Turinensis, Vaticanus B, and Venetus B are mere offshoots of Parisinus B. The Vesontinus codex is derived partly from Venetus A and partly from some manuscript of the third class.
The parchment manuscript to which allusion was made above is only some three centuries later than the time of Dio himself. It covers the ground from Book 78, 2, 2, to 79, 8, 3 inclusive (ordinary division). It belonged to Orsini, and after his death (A.D. 1600) became the property of the Vatican Library. It is square in shape and consists of thirteen leaves, each containing three columns of uncials. In spite of its age it is fairly overflowing with errors of every sort, many of which have been emended by an unknown corrector who also wrote in uncials; this same corrector would appear to have added the last leaf. And there are a few additions in minuscules by a still later hand. The leaves are very thin and in some places the ink has completely faded, showing only the impression of the pen. For specimen illustrations of this codex see Silvestre (Paléographie Universelle II, plate 7), Tischendorf (cod. Sinait. plate 20) and Boissevain's Cassius Dio (Vol. III).
The dates of these codices (centuries indicated by Arabic numerals) are about as follows:
I. Mediceus A-Ma- (11) I. Venetus A-Va- (11) I. Vaticanus A (15) I. Parisinus A (17) II. Mediceus B (15) III. Parisinus B (15) III. Venetus B (15) III. Vaticanus B (15) I. and III. Vesontinus (15) III. Turinensis (16) III. Escorialensis (?) I. Codex Vaticanus gr?cus No. 1288 (5-6).
Mediceus A contains practically Books Thirty-six to Fifty-four, and Venetus A Books Forty-one to Sixty (two "decades"). As they are both the oldest copies extant and the sources of all the others, modern editors would confine themselves to them exclusively but for the fact that in each some gaps are found. In Mediceus A, for instance, two quaternions (sixteen leaves) are lacking at the start, Leaf 7 is gone from the third quaternion, Leaves 1 and 8 from the fourth; from the thirty-first (now Quaternion 29) Leaf 1 has been cut, from the thirty-third and last Leaf 5 has disappeared. Likewise in Venetus A there are some gaps, especially near the end, in Book Sixty, where three leaves are missing. Hence (without stopping to take up gaps and breaks in detail) it may be said that the general plan pursued at the present day is to adopt a reading drawn for each book from the following sources respectively:
Book 36. Mediceus A, with lacuna of chapters 3-19 incl., supplied by the mutual corrections of Vaticanus A and Parisinus B.
Books 37 to 49. Mediceus A.
Books 50 to 54. Vaticanus A (vice Mediceus A).
Books 55 to 59. Venetus A.
Book 60. Venetus A, except chapter 17, sections 7 to 20, and chapter 22, section 3, to chapter 26, section 2,--two passages supplied by Mediceus B.
What knowledge has the world of the first thirty-five books of Dio's Roman History? To such a question answer must be made that of this whole section the merest glimpse can be had. It is here that we encounter the name of Zonaras, concerning whom some information will now be in order. Ioannes Zonaras was an official of the Byzantine Court who came into prominence under Alexis I. Comnenus in the early part of the twelfth century. For a time he acted as both commander of the body-guard and first private secretary to Alexis, but in the succeeding reign,--that of Calo-Ioannes,--he retired to the monastery of Mt. Athos, where he devoted himself to literary