Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/370

Rh 352 ARRIANUS. tie, and the conduct of battles and sieges. In all these respects the Anabasis is a masterly produc- tion, and Arrian shows that he himself possessed a thorough practical knowledge of military affairs. He seldom introduces speeches, but wherever he does, he shows a profound knowledge of man ; and the speech of Alexander to his rebellious soldiers and the reply of Coenus (v. 25, &c.), as well as some other speeches, are masterly speci- mens of oratory. Everything, moreover, which is not necessary to make his narrative clear, is care- fully avoided, and it is probably owing to this desire to omit ever3'thing superfluous in the course of his narrative, that we are indebted for his separate work, VII. On India (^Ivdiiaf or rcl'Ij/Si/ca), which may be regarded as a continuation of the Anabasis, and has sometimes been considered as the eighth book of it, although Arrian himself speaks of it as a dis- tinct work. It is usually printed at the end of the Anabasis, and was undoubtedly written imme- diately after it. It is a curious fact, that the Indica is written in the Ionic dialect, a circum- stance which has been accounted for by various sjippositions, the most probable among which is, that Arrian in this point imitated Ctesias of Cnidus, whose work on the same subject he wished to sup- ])lant by a more trustworthy and correct account. The first part of Arrian's Indica contains a very excellent description of the interior of India, in which he took Mcgasthenes and Eratosthenes as his guides. Then follows a most accurate descrip- tion of the whole coast from the mouth of the Indus to the Persian gulf, which is based entirely upon the IlcipijrAoi/j of Nearchus the Cretan, and the book concludes with proofs, that further south the earth is uninhabitable, on account of the great heat. Of Arrian's Anabasis and Indica two Latin transLitions, the one by C. Valgulius (without date or place), and the other by B. Facius (Fistiur. 1508) appeared before the Greek text was printed ; and the editio princeps of the original is that by Trin- avvelli, Venice, 1535, 8vo. Among the subsequent editions we mention only those of Gerbel (Strassb. 1539, 8vo.), H. Stephens (Paris, 1575, 8vo.), lilancard (Amsterd. 1688, 8vo.), J. Gronovius, who availed himself of several Augsburg and Ita- lian MSS. (Leyden, 1704, fol.), K. A. Schmidt, with the notes of G. Raphelius (Amsterd, i 757, 8vo.) and Schneider, who published the Anabasis and Indica separately, the former at Leipzig, 1798, 8vo., and the latter at Halle, 1798, 8vo. The best mo- dern editions of the Anabasis are those of J. E. Ellendt (Regimontii, 1832, 2 vols. 8vo.) and of C. W. Kriiger. (Berlin, 1835, vol. i., which con- Uiins the text and various readings.) All the works we have hitherto mentioned seem to have been written by Arrian previous to his government of Cappadocia. During this whole period, he appears to have been unable to get rid of the idea that he must imitate some one or an- other of the more ancient writers of Greece. But from this time forward, he shews a more indepen- dent spirit, and throws off the shackles under which he had laboured hitherto. During his government of Cappadocia, and before the outbreak of the war against the Alani, about a. d. 137, he dedicated to the emperor Hadrian — VIII. his description of a voyage round the coasts of the Euxine (^irepiTrKovs TTovTou Ei/|eij/oi;), which had undoubtedly been made by Arrian himself. The starting-point is ARRIANUS. Trapezus, whence he proceeds to Dioscurias, the Cimmerian and Thracian Bosporus, and Byzantium. This Periplus has come down to us togetlier with two other works of a similar kind, the one a Peri- plus of the Erythraean, and the other a Periplus of the Euxine and the Palus Maeotis. Both these v/orks also bear the name of Arrian, but they be- long undoubtedly to a later period. These Peri- pluses were first printed, with other geograj)hical works of a similar kind, by S. Gelenius, Basel, 1533, and somewhat better by Stuck, Geneva, 1577. They are also contained in the collection of the minor works of Arrian by Blancard (Amsterd. 1683 and 1750). The best editions are in Hud- son's Geographi Minores, vol. i., and in Gail's and liolfmanu's collections of the minor Geographers. It seems to have been about the same time that Arrian wrote, IX. a work on Tactics [XoyosraKTiKos or Tex^V TaicTiK-n). What we now possess under this name can have been only a section of the whole work, as it treats of scarcely anything else than the preparatory exercises of the cavalry ; but this subject is discussed with great judgment, and fully shews the practical knowledge of the author. The fragment is printed in Schetfer's collection of ancient works on tactics (Upsula, 1664), and bet- ter in Blancard's collection of the minor works of Arrian. The greatest literary activity of Arrian occurs in the latter period of his life, which he de- voted wholly to the composition of historical works. Their number was not smaller than their import- ance ; but all of these later productions are now lost, and some of them seem to have fallen into oblivion at an early time ; for Photius states, that there were several works of Arrian of which he was unable to discover the titles. Besides some smaller works, such as — X. a Life of Dion (Phot, p. 73, b.), XL a Life of Timoleon (Phot /. c), and XII. a Life of Tilliborus, a notorious Asiatic robber of the time (Lucian, Alejc. 2), we have mention of the following great works : XIII. A History of the successors of Alexander the Great (rd fierd 'AAe^- auSpov), in ten books, of which an abstract, or rather an enumeration of contents, is preserved in Photius. {Cud. 92.) XIV. A History of the Par- thians (Ila/jfli/fd), in 17 books (Phot, p, 17, a.), tho main subject of which was their wars with tho Romans, especially under Trajan. XV. A History of Bithynia {BiduuiKoi), in eight books. (Phot. Cod. 93; comp. p. 17, a.) This work began with the mythical age, and carried the history down to the time when Bithynia became united with the Roman empire, and in it the author mentioned several events connected with his own life. From a quotation in Eustathius (ad Horn. II. viii. p. 694), who seems to have had the work before him, it is highly probable that it was written in the Ionic dialect. (Comp. Eustath. ad Horn. II. iv. p. 490, V. p. 565, XV. p. 1017.) XVI. A History of tlie Alani ('AAavi/cTj or ra tear 'AAarous, Phot. p. 17, a.). A fragment entitled e/cro^is Kar 'AKavuv^ desciib- ing the plan of the battle against the Alani, was discovered in the seventeenth century at Milan : it seems to have belonged to the History of the Alani. It is printed in the collections of Scheffer and Blancard above referred to. A collection of all the works of Arrian was edited by Borhek, Lcmgo, 1792-1811, 3 vols. 8vo., which however has no merits at all. (Saint Croix, Examen crit. des A ncicns Ilisioricns d Alejrundre le Graiid^ Paris, 1804, p. 88, &c.; Ellendt, De Arri-