Dios Rome, Volume 1 | Page 6

labors until his death, which is said to have occurred at the advanced age of eighty-eight. He was the author of numerous works, such as a Lexicon of Words Old and New, an Exposition of the Apostolic and Patristic Canons, an Argument Directed Against the Marriage of Two Nephews to the Same Woman, etc.; but our special interest lies in his [Greek: Chronikon] (Chronicon), a history of the world in eighteen books, from the creation to 1118 A.D.,--this last being the date of the demise of Alexis. The earlier portions of this work are drawn from Josephus; for Roman History he uses largely Cassius Dio; Plutarch, Eusebius, Appian also figure. But it has already been stated that Books Twenty-two to Thirty-five perished at an indefinitely early date; hence it follows that Zonaras has only Books One to Twenty-one at hand to use for his account of early Rome; besides these he has later employed Books Forty-four to Eighty. Consequently it is possible to get many of the facts related to Dio, and in some cases his exact words, by reading Books VII to XII of this [Greek: Chronikon] or [Greek: Epitomê Histori?n] by Zonaras. It is Books VII, VIII, and IX especially which follow Books One to Twenty-one of Dio.
Parallel with this account of Zonaras and extending beyond it, even to the extent of throwing a wire of communication across the yawning time-chasm represented by Books Twenty-two to Thirty-five, are certain excerpts and epitomes found in various odd corners and strangely preserved to the present moment. These are: Excerpts Concerning Virtues and Vices; Excerpts Concerning Judgments; Excerpts Concerning Embassies. The so-called "Planudean Excerpts" which used to be admitted to editions are rejected on good authority[2] by Melber, whom I have followed. I shall attempt only a brief mention of those excerpts, to show their pertinence.
[Footnote 2: Mommsen (Hermes VI, pp. 82-89); Haupt (Hermes XIV, pp. 36-64, and XV, p. 160); Boissevain (Program, Rotterdam, 1884).]
The Excerpts Concerning Virtues and Vices exist in a manuscript of the tenth century at the library of Tours, originally brought from the island of Cyprus and sold to Nicolas Claude Fabre de Peiresc, who lived from 1580 to 1637. Apparently it is a collection made at the order of Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus. It was first published at Paris by Henri de Valois in 1634. The collection consists of quotations from Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Nicolas Damascenus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Appian, Dio, John of Antioch, and others.
The Excerpts Concerning Judgments are found in a Vatican manuscript known as Codex Vaticanus Rescriptus Gr?cus, N. 73. Angelo Mai first published the collection at Rome in 1826. They consist of many narrative fragments extending over the field of Roman History from early to late times, but fall into two parts: between these two parts there is a gap of six or more pages. That the former set of fragments is taken directly from Dio all scholars are ready to allow. In regard to the latter set there have been, and perhaps still are, diverse opinions. The trouble is that on the one hand these passages do not end with the reign of Alexander Severus, where Dio manifestly ended his history, but continue down to Constantine and (since the manuscript has lost some sheets at the close) possibly much farther: and on the other hand the style and diction differ considerably from Dio's own. It was once the fashion to say that as many of the fragments as come before the reign of Valerian (A.D. 253)[3] came from Dio's composition, but that the remainder were written by an unknown author. Now, however, it is generally agreed that all the excerpts of the second set were the work of one man, whether John of Antioch, or Peter Patricius, or some third individual. Still, though not direct quotations from Dio, they are regarded as of value in filling out both his account and that of Xiphilinus. The words are different, but the facts remain undoubtedly true.
[Footnote 3: This would give Dio a considerably longer life than is commonly allowed him.]
The Excerpts Concerning Embassies are contained in somewhat less than a dozen manuscripts, all of which prove to have sprung from a Spanish archetype (since destroyed by fire) that Juan Paez de Castro owned in the sixteenth century. Many of the copies were made by Andreas Darmarius. The first publisher of these selections was Fulvio Orsini (= Ursinus), who brought them out at Antwerp in 1582. As their name indicates, they are accounts of embassies sent either by the Romans to foreign tribes or by foreign tribes to the Romans. Some of them are taken from Cassius Dio; hence their importance here.
Now it was the custom of the earlier editors to arrange the (early) fragments of Dio according to the groups from which they were