Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/126

 106 THE DECLINE AND FALL names and authorities of four hundi*ed writers. From these originals, and from the numerous tribe of scholiasts and critics,ii^ some estimate may be formed of the literary wealth of the twelfth century ; Constantinople was enlightened by the genius of Homer and Demosthenes, of Aristotle and Plato ; and in the enjoyment or neglect of our present riches, we must envy the generation that could still peruse the history of Theopompus, the orations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander,ii'' and the odes of Alcaeus and Sappho. The frequent labour of illustration attests not only the existence but the popularity of the Grecian classics ; the general knowledge of the age may be deduced from the example of two learned females, the empress Eudocia, and the princess Anna Comnena, who cultivated, in the purple, the arts of rhetoric and philosophy."" The vulgar dialect of the ''5 Of these modern Greeks, see the respective articles in the Bibliotheca Grseca of Fabriciiis : a laborious work, yet susceptible of a better method and many im- provements : of Eustathius (torn. i. p. 289-292, 306-329 [for Eustathius see App. i. and below, cap. Ivi. p. 218]), of the Pselli (a diatribe of Leo Allatius, ad calcem torn. V. [reprinted in Migne, P. G. vol. 122]), of Constantino Porphyrogenitus (torn, vi. p. 486-509), of John Stobagus (tom. viii. 665-728), of Suidas (tom. ix. p. 620-827), John Tzetzes (tom. xii. p. 245-273). Mr. Harris, in his Philological Arrangements, opus senile, has given a sketch of this Byzantine learning (p. 287-300). [The elder Psellus (flor. c. init. saec. ix.)is a mere name. For the life of the j'ounger Psellus, see above, vol. v. Appendix i. John of Stoboi belongs to the 6th century. Of Suidas (a Thessalian name) nothing is known, but his lexicographical work was compiled in the loth century. Its great importance is due to its biographical notices and information on literary history. Much of the author's knowledge was obtained at second hand through the collections of Constantine Porphyrogennetos. Cp. Krumbacher, op. cif. p. 567. Best ed. by G. Bernhardy (1834-53). The only certain work of Isaac Tzetzes is a treatise on the metres of Pindar. He and his younger brother John lived in the 12th century. John wrote, among other things, an exegesis on Homer ; scholia on Hesiod, Aristophanes, the Alexandra of Lyco- phron, and the Halicutica of Oppian ; a commentary on Porphyry's Eisagoge. Most famous are his Chiliads (j3ij3Ao? icrTopia.%) in 12,674 political verses, containing 600 historical anecdotes, mythological stories, &c. , and provided with marginal scholia (ed. T. Kiessling, 1826). Extant letters of Tzetzes have been collected by T. Pressel (1851).] I'^From obscure and hearsay evidence, Gerard Vossius (de Poetis Grrecis, c. 6) and Le (Here (Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. xix. p. 285) mention a commentary of Michael Psellus on twenty-four plays of Menander, still extant in Ms. at Constan- tinople. Yet such classic studies seem incompatible with the gravity or dulness of a schoolman, who pored over the categories (de Psellis, p. 42), and Michael has probably been confounded with Homerus Sc/Jius, who wrote arguments to the comedies of Menander. In the xth century, Suidas quotes fifty plays, but he often transcribes the old scholiast of Aristophanes. [In the present century several speeches of Hyperides have been recovered from tombs in Egypt.] 1^'' Anna Comnena mayboast of her Greek style (to 'F.ATjii^eir e'9 aKpov itrnov&nKvia), and Zonaras, her contemporary, biu not her flatterer, may add with truth, yKiiTrav dev aKpipio9 ' XTTud^ova-av. The princess was conversant with the artful dialogues ofl'lato; and had studied Ibc T-Tpm.-TV';, or i/'/niiriTi//)?! of astrology, geometry, ai'ithinctic, and nuisic (see her |)rcfacc to tlie .lciad, with Ducange's notes).