Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/374

 338 A R R I A N. routd the Euxine fea to Adrian [A]. He is faid to have beari prectptor to the famous philofopher and emperor Marcus An- toninus. There are extant four books of his 4t Diatribe, or " Di flirtations upon Epicletus," whofe difciple he had been ; . and Photius tells us that he compofed likewife twelve books of that philofopher's difcourfes [B]. We are cold by another author, that he wrote the "Life and Death of Epi$etus.' r f. The moft celebrated of his works is his " Hiftory," in Greek, of Alexander the Great, in feven books, a per- formance much efteemed by the heft judges [ej. Photius .mentions alfo his *' Hiftory of Bithynia," another of the Phot. Bib! p. ^65. Johnfius, i>e Script Hift.I'hilu lib.iii. cap. 7. p. 43. edit, ranc 1659, [A] This Periplus Ponti Euxini, was printed in Greek, at Geneva, 1577. [B] Mr. Boileau, in his Life of Epicletu?, tells us, ' That of all the " fcholars of Epiftetus, Arrian is the " only one whole name has been tranf- '* but he is fich acne as Sufficiently " demonstrates the exrellence of his " mafter, though we Should own that " he alone had been of his forming. " For this is the very peribn who was " afterwards advanced to be preceptor " to Antonine the Pious, and diftin- " guided by the title of Xenophcn, be. " caule, like that philofopher, he com- " mitted to writing the dictates deli- " vered by his mafter in his life-time, " and published them in one volume, M under the name of ' Epifletus's Dif " courfes or DifTertations,' which at " prefcnt we have in four books. Af- " called his " Enchiridion," which is " a Sh r rt compendium if EpicTtttus's ' philoiophical principles, and hath " m"ft valuable and beautiful pieces of ' ancient morality." He oblerve? like wife in another paflage, that Epidtetus " left nothing of his own composition " behind him; and if Arrian had not " tranfmitted to poflerity the maxims " tiken from his maftor's mouth, we " t ave fome reafon to doubt whether 4( the very name ol Epicletus had not ' bem loft to the world." [c] La Mothe !e Vayer obferves, that this work is fufficient to give him a place smongft the piincipiil hiftorians ; and Photius fay^, that he had wtitten the lite of that conqueror in a manner fuperior to every other writer. There have been four Latin tranllatians of this work of Arrian ; the firft by Nicholas Saguntinus, the fecond by Peter Paul- Vergsrius, the third by Bartholomirus Facius, and the fourth by Bonaventure- Volc-jnius. Fabricius, in his Bibho- theta Graca, fuppofes that the two- fir ft never appeared in public, becaufe he could not fird them in any library. Facius's translation is generally con- demned : that of Volcanius is moftr efteemed, and generally annexed to the- beft editions of '-ur author. It wa translated into Italian by Leo of Mcde- ria, and printed at Venice in 15545 and into French by Claudius de Vivan,. and publi/ried at Paris in 15-^ i. JVIr. d'Ablancourt gave another ' er f5 on o f it, which has been thrice reprinted. Mr. Rooke published an English tranf- lation of this work of Arrian in 1726,. in two volumes in c&avo, with notes hiSrorica!, geographical, and critical ; to vhich is prefixed Le Clerc's Criti- cifm upon Quintus Curtiu? r and fome rematk- upon Perizonius's Vindica- tion of that author. The translator,, in his preface, tells us, that Ptolemy and Ariftobulus, whom our author chiefly copied, are not always free from flrange and unaccountable ftories of Alexander the Great's exploits; but that as Arrian was a man of found judgement, he took care to chufe only what was moft probable, and left the reft, as hu/ks and chaff", to be g'eaned up by fuch as were ambitious of fwelling their works to a huge fize by heaps of al) gatherings. He obfcrvef afterwards, that no antient author w ho ever wrote a [articular hiftory of Alexander, novf- remains, except Curtius and Arrian, the latter of whom is the truer! ani moft accurate. Alani,"
 * ' mitted with reputation to pofteiity ;
 * ter this he compofed a little treatife
 * ever been acknowledged one rf the