Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/968

Rh 956 SYMEON. bable that he is the Symeon Protovestiarius (Ivfidiiv trpc>yro§€(TTidpios) mentioned by Cedrenus (Com- pend. p. 737, ed. Paris, vol. ii. p. .511, ed. Bonn) as having been banished in a. D. 1034, by the Emperor Michael the Paphlagonian [Michael IV. Paphlago] on account of his sympathy with the Patrician Dalassenus. Symeon had been one of the personal attendants of the Emperor Con- stantine IX. (or VIII. as some reckon, brother and colleague of Basil II.), whose death occurred A. d. 1028. Symeon, on his banishment, retired to a monastery founded by himself near mount Olym- pus ; and appears to have spent the rest of his life in literary pursuits and monastic duties {Cedren. I. c). As one of his works is dedicated to the Emperor Michael Ducas, he must have survived the accession of that prince in a. d. 1071. No- thing beyond this appears to be known of his personal history. The principal works of Symeon Seth are as fol- lows : — 1. 'SvvTayixa Kara, (TToix^tov iv^pL rpocpcSv duvd/iiewv. Syntagma per litlerarum ordinem de cibariorum facultate. This is the work dedicated to Michael Ducas. It is a descriptive catalogue, alphabetically arranged, of the chief articles of hu- man food : the materials are for the most part taken from Symeon's contemporary, Michael Psellus [PsELLUS, No. 3.]. It was published, with a Latin version, by Lilius Gregorius Gyraldus of Ferrara, 12mo. Basel, 1538. The arrangement of the text differs from that of the version : the al- phabetical order in the one being of the Greek titles to each article, in the other of their Latin equivalents ; but in an edition of the version re- vised by Dominicus Monthesaurus of Verona, I2rao. Basel, 1561, the Greek titles are prefixed to each article, and the original order is restored. An improved edition of the Greek text, with a new version by MartinusBogdanus, was published 12mo. Paris, 1658. 2. 'S.vvo^i.s koX aTrdvdi(rfj.a(pvcriKwv re Kol (pio(T6(po}v doyijidTuv, Compendium et jiores naturalium et philosophorum placitorum. Of this work, which is also in great part pillaged from Psel- lus, Allatius (ubi infra) has given a short extract, with a Latin version. The first two of the five books of which the work consistsare extant in some MSS. under the name of Psellus. They bear the title of 'EwLv(Teis awTOfioi (pvcriKwv f'TjTTj^drwj', Solutiones compendiosae naturalium quaestionum. 3. De Medidna (s. De Medicamentis) ex Animali- bus. A Latin version of two fragments of this ap- pears at the end of Monthesaurus's revised edition of Gyraldus's version of the Syntagma de cibariorum facultate. 4. IlepX off^pricreus, De Odoratu, and 5. Ilepi yeiaews /col d(ijs, De Gustatione ei Tadu, published by Ideler, in his Physici et Medici Graeci Minores^ vol. ii. p. 283, 8vo. Berlin, 1842. But the work which has given Symeon Seth the greatest claim to remembrance, is his Greek version of the Indian apologues, now known as the Fables of Bidpai or Pilpay. This version is briefly en- titled Sre^oi'tTTjs Koi 'lxvndTT]s, Stephanites et Ichnelates., s. Coronarius et Vestigator, and a Latin version of a considerable part of it was subjoined by Possin to his edition of Georgius Pachymeres, fol. Rome, 1666 ; but it is omitted in the Bonn reprint of that version. The Greek text, not how- ever in a complete form, was published under the title of Specimen Sapientiac Indorum veferum, by Seb. Godof. Starkius, 12mo. Berlin, 1697. The introductory chapters, which had been prefixed SYMEON. to Bidpai's work, and had been also trans- lated by Seth but omitted by Starkius, were pub- lished under the title of Prolegomena ad Librum^ '2.rc(pavlTr]5 KoX 'Ixt^-nhdrrjs, by Floderus, Upsala, 1780. From a more prolix title or introduction prefixed to the work we learn that it was brought from India by nepC^^, Perzoe, or Barzouyeh, phy- sician to Chosroes or Khosru I. Nushirvvan [Sas SANiDAE, No. 21], King of Persia, who reigned from A. D. 531 to 579, and that it was presented to that King. It is probable that what Barzouyeh presented to Khosru was a Pehlvi or old Persian version, not the Sanscrit original. It was, accord- ing to the title just cited, translated into Arabic, and this Arabic version Symeon Seth translated into Greek. A succinct account of this ancient and curious work is given in the Penny Cyclopaedia^ s. V. BiDPAi, where are given numerous references to the authorities used. See also Fabric. e6/. Grace, vol. vii. pp. 777 — 781. A history of Alexander the Great, replete with fabulous incidents, and falsely bearing the name of Callisthenes [Callisthenes, No. 1 ], which is found in some libraries (comp. Catal. MStorum Biblioth. Regiae., vol. ii. p. 388, Cod. mdclxxxv. fol. Paris, 1740), is said by Fabricius {Biblioth. Graec. vol. iii. p. 36) and Wharton {Hist, of Eng. Poetry., vol. i. p. 129) to have been translated from the Persian by Symeon Seth, but on what authority this assertion rests they do not state : nor does the work seem to bear any internal marks of belong- ing to Seth. The opening portion of a history of Alexander which some identify with this work, is given b)' Berckel (in a note to Stephanus Byzant. De Urbibus., ad voc. BouK€(^aAeta) and by Fabricius {Biblioth. Graec. vol. xiv. p. 148, ed. vet.) : it bears the title of Bi'os 'AA€|aVSpou tow Ma/ceSoi/os koL Trpd^eis, Vita et Gesta Alexandri Macedoniue Pegis. A Latin history of Alexander closely resembling this Greek work, and considered by some as a ver- sion though it varies much from the original, was printed in black letter, fol. Argentin. 1489 and 1494. These works bear, both of them, consider- able resemblance to the work said to have been written in Greek by Aesopus [Aesopus, p. 48], and translated into Latin by Julius Valerius, whose translation was first published from an imperfect MS. by Angelo Mai, at Milan, 1817, and again more complete in vol. vii. of his Classici Auctores e Vaticanis Codd. editi, 8vo. Rom. 1835. It is also given from Mai's first edition as an appendix to the edition of Quintus Curtius in the Bibliotheca Classica Latina of Lemaire, 8vo. Paris, 1824. Considerable information re- specting these works of the Pseudo Callisthenes, Aesopus or Julius Valerius and others, which have much in common with each other and appear to have had a common origin, may be found in the preface of Mai (reprinted by Lemaire) ; in the Journal des Savans for 1818, pp. 401, &c., 609, &c. ; and in the Bibliotheque Universelle for the same year, pp. 218, &c., 322, &c. But of these works neither by Mai nor in the periodicals is any one ascribed to Symeon Seth. Some other works of Symeon are extant in MS. (Fabric. Biblioth. Graec U. cc. vol. vii. p. 472, vol. xi. p. 320 ; Allat. De Symeon. Scriptis^ p. 181, &c. ; Vossius, De His- ioricis Graec. lib. iv. c. 21.) 28. Studita. [Nos. 16 and 24.] 29. Studita. Some Tpoirdpia, Cantica, or hymns, by Symeon, a monk of the Convent of Studiuoi