Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/774

Rh 756 CINNAMUS. preserved by Priscian (vi. 16. § 84, ed. Krehl) and the Scholiast on Juvenal (vi. 155), and two consecutive lines given by Servius (ad Virg. Georg. . 288), which are not without merit in so far as melodious versification is concerned. Te matutinus flentera conspexit Eous Et flentem paulo vidit post Hesperus idem. The circumstance that nine years were spent in the elaboration of this piece has been frequently dwelt upon, may have suggested the well-known precept of Horace, and unquestionably secured the suffrage of the grammarians. (Catull. xcv. ; Quin- til. X. 4. § 4 ; SeiT. and Philargyr. ad Virg. Ed. ix. 35 ; Hor. A. P. 387, and the comments of Aero, Porphyr., and the Schol. Cruq. ; Martial, Kpigr. x. 21; Gell. xix. 9, 13 ; Sueton. de Illtistr. Gramm. 18.) Besides the Sraj-ma, he was the author of a work entitled Propempticon Pollionis^ which Voss imagines to have been dedicated to Asinius Pollio when setting forth in u. c. 40 on an expedition against the Parthini of Dalmatia, from which he returned in triumph the following year, and found- ed the first public library ever opened at Rome from the profits of the spoils. This rests of course upon the assumption that Cinna was not killed in B. c. 44, and until that fact is decided, it is vain to reason upon the subject, for the fragments, which extend to six hexameter lines, of which four are consecutive, throw no light on the question. (Charis. Jnstit. Gramm. p. 99, ed. Putsch; Isidor. Orig. xix. 2, 4.) Lastly, in Isidorus (vi. 12) we find four elegiac verses, while one hexameter in Suetonius {de II- liisir. Gramm. 11), one hexameter and two hende- casyllabicg in Gellius (ix. 12, xix. 13), and two scraps in Nonius Marcellus (s. trv. Cti/peai. cummi), are quoted from the "Poemata" and "Epigrara- mata" of Cinna. The class to which some of these fugitive essays belonged may be inferred from the words of Ovid in his apology for the Ars Amatoria. {Trist. ii. 435.) ( Weichert, Po«<ar. Latin. Reliqu.) [W. R.] CI'NNAMUS, JOANNES ('Icja^i'Tjs Kivvcu- fjMs), also called CI'NAMUS {Kivafws), and SI'NNAMUS {l,lvvafjL05), one of the most distin- guished Byzantine historians, and the best Euro- pean historLan of his time, lived in the twelfth century of the Christian aera. He was one of the Comnenus, who reigned from A. D. 1143 till 1180. The functions of the imperial notaries, the first of whom was the proto-notarius, were nearly those of private secretaries appointed for both private and state affairs, and they had a considerable influence upon the administration of the empire. Cinnamus was atta£hed to the person of Manuel at a youthful age, and probably as early as the year of his ac- cession, and he accompanied that great emperor in his numerous wars in Asia as well as in Europe. Favoured by such circumstances, he undertook to write the history of the reign of Manuel, and that of his predecessor and father, the emperor Calo- Joanncs; and so v/ell did he accomplish his task, that there is no history written at that period which can be compared with his work. The full title of this work is 'Ettito^tj rciv Karopdaixdrtav rep juaKa- pirri $aaiKet Kcd ■rrop(pvpo'yfuin]TCf) Kvpi(f, *ltcdvvT} rq) Ko/JLvrjvw, Koi d(p-qyTi(ris tmi/ Trpaxdevruu ro} doiSifxa. wy auToS T(f fia<ri(7 Kal irop<pvpoy€vin^T(p Kvp'itf) CINNAMUS. MavoviiK rrp Kofxvr]v^ Tron]Qi7(Ta 'Iwa'f j/77 fiaaiKiK^ ypan/jLUTLK^ Kiui/d/jLCf}. It is divided into six books, or more correctly into seven, the seventh, however, being not finished : it is not known if the author wrote more than seven books ; but as to the se- venth, which in the Pans edition forms the end of the sixth and last book, it is evidently mutilated, as it ends abruptly in the account of the siege of Iconium by the emperor Manuel in 1176. As Cinnamus was still alive when Manuel died (1180), it is almost certain that he finished the history of his whole reign ; and the loss of the latter part of his work is the more to be regretted, as it would undoubtedly have thrown light on many circum- stances connected with the conduct of the Greek aristocracy, and especially of Andronicus Comne- nus, afterwards emperor, during the short reign of the infant son and successor of Manuel, Alexis II.' In the first book Cinnamus gives a short and con- cise account of the reign of Calo-Joannes, and in the following he relates the reign of Manuel. Possessed of great historical knowledge, Cin- namus records the events of his time as a man accustomed to form an opinion of his own upon important affairs ; and, being himself a states- man who took part in the administration of the empire, and enjoyed the confidence of the em- peror Manuel, he is always master of his sub- ject, and never sacrifices leading circumstances to amusing trifles. His knowledge was not con- fined to the political state of the Greek empire ; he was equally well acquainted with the state of Italy, Germany, Hungary, and the adjoining bar- barous kingdoms, the Latin principalities in the East, and the empires of the Persians and Turks. His view of the origin of the power of the popes, in the fifth book, is a fine instance of historical criticism, sound and true without being a tedious and dry investigation, and producing the effect of a powerful speech. He is, however, often violent in his attacks on the papal power, and is justly reproached with being prejudiced against the Latin princes, although he deserves that reproach much less than Nicctas and Anna Comnena. His praise of the emperor Manuel is exaggerated, but he is very far from making a romantic hero of him, as Anna Comnena did of the emperor Alexis. Cinnamus is partial and jealous of his enemies, rivals, or such as are above him; he is impar- tial and just where he deals with his equals, or those below him, or such persons and events as are indifferent to him personally. In short, Cin- namus shews that he was a Byzantine Greek. His style is concise and clear, except in some in- stances, where he embodies his thoughts in rheto- rical figures or poetical ornaments of more show than beauty. This defect also is common to his countrymen ; and if somebody would undertake to trace the origin of the deviation of the writers, poets, and artists among the later Greeks from the classical models left them by their forefathers, he would find it in the supernatural tendency of minds imbued with Christianism being in perpetual con- tact with the sensualism of the Mohammedan faith and the showy materialism of Eastern imagination. Xenophon, Thucydides, and Procopius were the models of Cinnamus ; and though he cannot be compared with the two former, still he may be ranked with Procopius, and he was not unworthy to be the disciple of such masters. His work will ever be of interest to the scholar and the historian.
 * Grammatici " or " Notarii " of the emperor Manuel