Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/964

Rh 952 SYMEON. The works of Symeon of St. Mamas are nu- merous, and are divisible into the following classes : — 1. A070J, Orationes. AUatius {De Syimon. Scriptis) gives a catalogue of the subjects and open- ing sentences of sevent'-eight of these, extant in various MSS. in the original Greek ; and the list is transcribed by Fabricius {Biblioth. Graec. vol. xi. p. 304, &c.). Several of these, and some others of which the original Greek was not known by Allatius to be extant, thirty-three in all, were pub- lished in a Latin version by Jac. Pontanus, with a preface and notes by Jac. Gretserus, 4to. Ingol- Ktadt, .1603. The original of these thirty- three, in the order in which Pontanus gave them, together Avith twenty others, were in a MS. in the Coislin Library. (Montfaucon, Biblioth. Coislin. p. 407.) To this version Pontanus subjoined a Lation version of several pieces by different authors. A modern (Romaic) Greek version of the works of Symeon contains ninety-two of these Ao7ot, 2. KecpaAata irpaicTiKk Koi ^eoKoyiKoi, Capita Moralia. The number of these varies in different copies, either from some copies being imperfect, or from a dif- ference of arrangement : in some MSS. they are arranged in three divisions, and amount in all to two hundred and twenty-eight (comp. AUat. de Symeon. p. 1 ^%) ; and this is the number in the version of Pontanus published with the Orationes. The modern Greek version contains only one hundred and eighty-one ; but it contains also other Ke^aAaja, to the number of forty, by Symeon de- signated "the Pious" (Su^uecSvos tov ivkaSovs). [No. 24.] 3. ©eiot vfxvoi^ Divini Hyinni, or, as Pontanus entitled them in his Latin version, Sacrae Comine7itatio7ies. These are in verse of various kinds, iambic, anacreontic, and of the kind called '* versus politici." (This last kind of verses is described in a note to the article Philippus, literary and ecclesiastical. No, 27, p. 291.) Alla- tius (p. 161, &c.) and, after him, Fabricius {Bihl. Graec.o.x. p. 31 4, &c.), give the titlesof fifty-eight of these Hymni, thirty-eight of which, according to Allatius, were translated into Latin, and published by Pontanus : but either by the subdivision or alteration of these, or by the addition of others, of which the original is not known, Pontanus, who lias destroyed the poetical form of the original, and arranged them in one Sacrarum Commenlationum Liber, gives forty " capita." The modern Greek version is in verse, and comprehends fifty-one Aoyoi, Orationes s. lAbri. The dissertation Ilepl dWoido- (Tiwu pvxvs Kal (rdifxaTos tuiv e| d4pu;v, twv 4k &Toixiiui}Vy Tuv e/c ^pca/xdrwv Koi rwv e/c Saifxavuv fmyevoixfpwv rnuv yos, De Alterationibus Aniniae et Corporis quae ex Varietate Coeli aut Aeris quae- que ex Elementis^ ex Cibis., interdum etiam ex Daemo- nibus existere in ttobis solent Dissertation published, with a Latin version by the Jesuit Possinus, in the notes to his edition of the 5. Nili Epistolae, 4to. Paris, 1657, is one of the Orationes translated by Pontanus. These are all the works of Symeon which have been published, and chiefly in Latin or modern Greek versions. The Latin ver- sions of Pontanus and Possinus are contained in the Maxima Bibliot/ieca Patrum, vol. xxii. ad init. fol. Lyon. 1677. The modern or Romaic Greek version was made by Dionysius Zagoraeus (Aiowcios 7Myopaios a hermit of the desert islet of Piperi, off the promontory of Athos, and was published 4to., Venice, 1790, with the abridged Romaic version of Nicctaa Stethatus's SYMEON. life of Symeon prefixed. Allatius, Oudin, and Harless, in his edition of Fabricius, give the titles of various works of Symeon, extant in MS. in various libraries ; but many of them appear to be only duplicates or extracts of those already men- tioned, with titles more or less varied. Combefis ascribes to him a discourse in honour of Symeon the Just, who is mentioned in the New Testament as taking the infant Christ in his aims. The author of this discourse styles himself 'S.vjx^wu 6 TaireLuds, Symeon Humilis. Symeon was held in the highest esteem in his own and following gene- rations, and Allatius has quoted several laudatory poetical effusions in his honour. (Allatius, De Symeon. Scriptis^ p. 151, &c. ; Fabric. Biblioth. Graec. vol. x. p. 323, note h., vol. xi. p. 302, &c. ; Oudin, De Scriptoribus Ecdcs. vol. ii. col. 587, &c. ; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 1051, vol. ii. p. 138, ed. Oxford, 1740—1743.) 17. Mandrita. [No. 31.] 18. Manichaeus. [No. 8.] 19. Martyr. [No. 26.] 20. Massalianus. [No. 8.] 21. Of Mesopotamia. A discourse of which a Latin version under the title of Sermo de viorle semper medilando, or Sermo de menie semper com- plectendo suum cuique discessum, is given in the Bibliotheca Patrum (Appendix ad edit, primam, Paris, 1579 ; vol. ii. ed. secunda, Paris, 1589 ; vol. V. pt. ii. ed. Cologne, 1618 ; vol. ii. col. 73 — 76, ed. Paris, 1654; vol. vii. p. 1227, ed. Lyon. 1677), where it is ascribed to the elder Symeon the Sty- lite [No. 31], is in a MS. of the original, in the Imperial Library at Vienna, ascribed to a Symeon of Mesopotamia. Tou 07101; koX oaiov 'Zv/j.iwuos MecroTTOTafjLias irepl tov del ev vcf ex? 'i' t77j/ 7]fu.(pau rrjs e^oSou tov fiiov. Sancti Symeonis Mesopota- mitae sermo de eo quod semper in aniiiio habere debeamus diem exitus vitae. Lambecius shows, by quotations from the Vitae Patrum of Rosweydus, and the Menaea of the Greeks, that there was a particular monastery, in some locality not defined, apparently in the Syrian or Roman part of Meso- potamia, which was usually described by the name of the country, not of any particular adjacent spot: — " monasterium quod est in Mesopotamia Syriae," ^oj/j) rev dyiou 'AaKKijiriov rod ev rrj Me«ro7rtfTO(Ui'ot rijs ^vpias ; and thinks it likely that Symeon, the author of the discourse, was abbot of this monas- tery. The Greek text, from which Lambecius cites some passages, differs materially in parts from the Latin version in the Biblioilieca Patrum. (Al- lat. De Symeon. Scriptis., p. 24 ; Fabric. Bib/. Graec. vol. xi. p. 298 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. Dissertat. prima, p. 1 8 ; Lambec. Comment, de Biblioth. Cae- saraea, vol. s. lib. v. col. 198, &c. ed. Kollar.) 22. Metaphrastes (o Mer acppaa-rri';), known also by the titles of Magister (0 Mdyiarpos) jind LoGOTHETA (it is doubtful if he was Logotheta CuRsus, o AoyoOfTrjs tov SpSfiov., or Magnus Logotheta, d fxeyas AoyodeTrjs), a celebrated Byzantine writer of the end of the ninth and be- ginning and middle of the tenth centuries, as Alla- tius has shown, but about whose date writers have differed very widely, some placing him in the be- ginning of the third century, and others as late as the fourteenth (see Allatius and Cave, ubi infra). Our chief authority for the life of Symeon is the 'EyKoifjLiov els tov MeTa<ppa<rTiju Kvpiov ^vueutva. Encomium in Metaphrastem Dominum Symeonem of the younger Psellus [Psellus, No. 3], and an