Dios Rome, Volume 1 | Page 7

taken: (1) the so-called Fragmenta Valesia (pickings from grammarians, lexicographers, scholiasts), edited by the same Henri de Valois above mentioned; (2) the Fragmenta Peiresciana (= Excerpts Concerning Virtues and Vices); (3) the Fragmenta Ursina (= Excerpts Concerning Embassies); and finally, in the edition of Sturz[4] (4) Excerpta Vaticana (= Excerpts Concerning Judgments and the now rejected "Planudean Excerpts"). The above grouping has been abandoned and a strictly chronological order followed in all the later editions, including Bekker, Dindorf, Melber, Boissevain.
[Footnote 4: See p. 22.]
The body of Fragments preceding Book Thirty-six cites, in addition to the collections mentioned, the following works or authors:
Anecdota Gr?ca of Immanuel Bekker (1785-1871), a scholar of vast attainments and profound learning in classical literature. These Anecdota are excerpts made from various Greek manuscripts found in the course of travels extending through France, Italy, England, and Germany. There were three volumes, appearing from 1814 to 1821.
Antonio Melissa.--A Greek monk living between 700 and 1100 A.D. He collected two books of quotations from early Christian Fathers (one hundred and seventy-six titles) on the general subject of Virtues and Vices.
Arsenius.--Archbishop of Monembasia: age of the Revival of Learning.
Cedrenus.--A Greek monk of the eleventh century who compiled a historical work ([Greek: Synopsis histori?n]) the scope of which extended from the creation to 1057 A.D. He gives no evidence of historical knowledge or the critical sense, but rather of great credulity and a fondness for legends. His treatise is, moreover, largely plagiarized from the Annals of Ioannes Scylitzes Curopalates.
Cramer, J.A.--An Oxford scholar who published two collections of excerpts (similar to those of Bekker) between 1835 and 1841. The collection referred to in our text had its source in manuscripts of the Royal Library in Paris. It was in three octavo volumes.
Etymologicum Magnum.--A lexicon of uncertain date, after Photius (886 A.D.) and before Eustathius. This dictionary contains many valuable citations from lost Greek works. First edition, Venice, 1499.
Eustathius.--Archbishop of Thessalonica and the most learned man of his age (latter half of the twelfth century). His most important composition is his Commentary on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in which he quotes vast numbers of authors unknown to us now except by name. First edition, Rome, 1542-1550.
Glossary of C. Labb?us, the editor of Ancient Glosses of Law Terms, published in Paris, 1606.
John of Antioch.--Author of a work called "Chronological History from Adam" quoted in the Excerpts Concerning Virtues and Vices (vid. supra). Internal evidence indicates that the book was written after 610 and before 900 A.D.
John of Damascus.--A voluminous ecclesiastical writer belonging to the reigns of Leo Isauricus and Constantine VII. (approximately from 700 to 750 A.D.). He was an opponent of the iconoclastic movement. The best edition of his works was published at Paris in 1712. The passage cited in our Fragments is from [Greek: peri Drakont?n], a mutilated essay on dragons standing between a "Dialogue Between a Saracen and a Christian" and a "Discussion of the Holy Trinity."
John Laurentius Lydus.--A Byzantine writer, born at Philadelphia (the city of Revelation, III, 7), in 490 A.D. Although he was famed during his lifetime as a poet, all his verses have perished. The work cited in our Fragments,--"Concerning the Offices of the Roman Republic, in Three Books,"--had a curious history. For centuries it was regarded as lost, but about 1785 nine tenths of it was discovered by De Villoison in a MS. in the suburbs of Constantinople. It was published in Paris, 1811.--Laurentius in the course of his career held important political posts and received two important literary appointments from the Emperor Justinian I.
Suidas.--A lexicographer of the tenth century, composer of the most comprehensive Greek dictionary of early times. It is a manual at once of language and of antiquities. Inestimable as its value is, the workmanship is careless and uneven. The arrangement is alphabetical.
John Tzetzes.--A Greek grammarian of the twelfth century. His learning was great but scarcely equaled his self-conceit, as repeatedly displayed in passages of his works. Many of his writings are still extant. One of these is called Chiliades (or Thousands), a name bestowed by its first editor, who divided the work into sections of one thousand lines each. The subject-matter consists of the most miscellaneous historical or mythological narratives or anecdotes, absolutely without connection. Tzetzes copied these accounts from upward of four hundred writers,--one of them being Cassius Dio. The Chiliades is written in the so-called Versus politicus, or "political verse," which is really not verse at all, but a kind of decadent doggerel.--A minor treatise by the same author is the Exegesis of the Iliad of Homer, published by Hermann (Leipzig, 1812).
Isaac Tzetzes, who has attracted less attention than his brother John, is best known as the author of a commentary on the Cassandra of Lycophron (a poem of 1474 iambic verses by a post-classical tragedian, about 285 B.C., embodying