Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/134

Rh 120 EUSTATHIUS. ronymus (de Script, illustr. 85 ; comp. Socrat. vi 13), and is undoubtedly genuine. It is printed at the end of AUatius's edition of the commentary on the Hexaeraeron. Eustathius wrote further Homi- lies, Epistles, and an Interpretation of the Psalms, of which some fragments are still extant. They are collected in Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 135 — 149 ; comp. Cave, Hist, Lit. i. p. 138, &c. 2. Bishop of Berytus, was present at the coun- cil of Chalcedon in a. d. 451, and had been one of the presidents at the council of Berytus, held in A. D. 448. {Ada Condi, ii. p. 281. ed. Binian. ; Zacharias Mitylen. deMund. Opif. p. 1 QQ, ed. Barth.) 3. Of Cappadocia, a New Platonist, was a pu- pil of lamblichus and Aedesius. When the latter was obliged to quit Cappadocia, Eustathius was left behind in his place. Eunapius, to whom alone we are indebted for our knowledge of Eustathius, declares that he was the best man and a great ora- tor, whose speech in sweetness equalled the songs of the Seirens. His reputation was so great, that when the Persians besieged Antioch, and the em- pire was threatened with a war, the emperor Con- stantius was prevailed upon to send Eustathius, although he was a pagan, as ambassador to king Sapor, in a. d. 358, who is said to have been quite enchanted by the oratory of the Greek. His coun- trymen and friends who longed for his return, sent deputies to him, but he refused to come back to his country on account of certain signs and pro- digies. His wife Sosipatra is said to have even excelled her husband in talent and learning. (Eu- nap. Vit. Soph. pp. 21, 47, &c. ed. Hadr. Junius ; comp. Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philos. vol. ii. p. 273, &c.) 4. Of Epiphaneia in Syria, a rhetorician of the time of the emperor Anastasius. He wrote an his- torical work in nine books, intitled XpoviKri lirirofjiri. It consisted of two parts, the first of which embrac- ed the history from the creation to the time of Aeneias ; and the second from the time of Aeneias down to the twelfth year of the reign of the empe- ror Anastasius. With the exception of a few frag- ments, the whole work is lost. (Evagrius, iii. 37, vi. in fin. ; Nicephor. Prooem. and xiv. 57 ; Sui- das, s. V. Evarddios.) There is another Eustathius of Epiphaneia, who belongs to an earlier date, and was present among the Arians at the synod of Se- leuceia, in A. d. 359. (Epiphan. Ixxiii. 26 ; Chron. Alexandr. p. 296. ed. Cange.) 5. An Erotic writer, or novelist whose name is written in some MSS. " Eumathius." With regard to his native place, he is called in the MSS. of his work MaKpeixpoKirris, which is usually referred to Constantinople, or TTape/ijSoA^TTjs, according to which he would be a native of the Egyptian town of Pa- rembole. He appears to have been a man of rank, and high in office, for the MSS. describe him as •npoarovu^eXiaifxos and fxeyas xapTO(^uAa|, or chief keeper of the archives. The time at which he lived is uncertain, but it is generally believed that he cannot be placed earlier than the twelfth century of our era, so that his work would be the latest Greek novel that we know of. Some writers, such as Cave, confound him with Eustathius, the archbishop of Thessalonica, from whom he must surely be dis- tinguished. The novel which he wrote, and through which alone his name has come down to us, bears the title. To koS* 'TcTnivTqv Koi "tafiiviav dpafxa, and consists of eleven books, at the end of the last of which the author himself mentions the title. It is a story of the love of Hysminias and Hysmine, EUSTATHIUS. written in a very artificial style. The tale is mo- notonous and wearisome ; the story is frigid and improbable, and shews no power of invention on the part of its author. The lovers are of a very sen- sual disposition. It was first edited with a Latin translation by Guilbert Gaulmin, Paris, 1617, 8vo., who published, the year after, his preface and notes to it. The Latin translation is reprinted in the Leiden edition of Parthenius, (1612, 12mo.) Some- what improved reprints of Gaulmin's edition ap- peared at Vienna, 1791, 8vo. and Leipzig, 1792, 8vo. There is a very good French translation by Lebas, Paris, 1828, 12mo., with a critical introduc- tion concerning the author and his novel. (Comp. Fabric. BiM. Graec. vol. viii. p. 136, &c. ; Th. Grasse. in Jahn's Jahrbuclier for 1836, fourth sup- plement, vol. p. 267, &c. ) 6. Bishop of Sebastia in Armenia, who, toge- ther with Basilius of Ancyra, was the author of the sect of the Macedonians. (Suid. s. v. Euo-raSios.) He was originally a monk, and is said to have been the first who made the Armenians acquainted with an ascetic life. For this reason some persons ascrib- ed to him the work on Ascetics, which is usually regarded as the production of St. Basilius. He must have been a contemporary of Constantine the Great, for Nicephorous states, that although he had signed the decrees of the council of Nicaea, he yet openly sided with the Arians. (Epiphan. Ixxv. I, &c. ; Sozomen. iii. 13 ; Nicephor. ix. 16.) 7. Archbishop of Thessalonica, was a native of Constantinople, and lived during the latter half of the twelfth century. At first he was a monk in the monastery of St. Florus, but afterwards he was appointed to the offices of superintendent of peti- tions (fTrl Twv SeTjo-ecoi/), professor of rhetoric {fxa^ tarwp prjTopwu), and diaconus of the great church of Constantinople. After being bishop elect of Myra, he was at once raised to the archbishopric of Thessalonica, in which office he remained until his death in a. d, 1 198. The funeral orations which were delivered upon him by Euthymius and Mi- chael Choniates are still extant in MS. in the Bod- leian Library at Oxford. The praise which is be- stowed upon him by Nicetas Choniates (viii. p. 238 X. p. 334) and Michael Psellus (Du Cange, Glossar. s. V. p^Twp) is perfectly justified by the works of Eustathius that have come down to us : they con- tain the amplest proofs that he was beyond all dis- pute the most learned man of his age. His works consist of commentaries on ancient Greek poets, theological treatises, homilies, epistles, &c., the first of which are to us the most important. These com- mentaries shew that Eustathius possessed the most extensive knowledge of Greek literature, from the earliest to the latest times; while his other works exliibit to us the man's high personal cliaracler, and his great power as an orator, which procured him the esteem of the imperial family of the Comneni. The most important of all his works is, l.Hisj commentary on the Iliad and Odyssey {UapiKfio- al els TTJu 'OfiTJpov 'lAjaSo Kcrl 'OSvacreiav), or rather his collection of extracts from earlier com- mentators of those two poelhs. This vast compila- tion was made with the most astonishing diligence and perseverance from the numerous and extensive works of the Alexandrian grammarians and cri- tics, as well as from later commentators ; and as nearly all the works from which Eustathius made his extracts are lost, his commentary is of incalcu- lable value to us, for he has preserved at least the