Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/229

 GREECE (LANGUAGE AND LITEKATUBE) 215 picturesque and pleasing. During the Roman supremacy, and down to the introduction of Christianity, the principal poet was Nicander ; the most important prose writers were Poly- bius, Apollodorus, Dionysius Thrax the gram- marian, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Hali- carnassus, and Dionysius Periegetes. From this period to the close of the Roman empire in the West, there are two parallel series of writers, the pagan and the Jewish and Chris- tian. Of the former, the most important are Babrius, Strabo, Epictetus, Plutarch, Dion Chrysostomus, Arrian, Polyaenus, Pausanias, Marcus Antoninus, Aristides, Lucian, Pollux, Diogenes Laertius, Achilles Tatius, Dion Cas- sius, Athenseus, Herodianus, Philostratus, Plo- tinus, Dexippus, Longinus, Palrophatus, and lamblichus ; of the latter, Philo, Josephus, the authors of the books of the New Testament, Clement of Rome, Justinus, Polycarp, Irenseus, Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, and Athana- sius. During the period extending from the iblishment of the seat of government at Constantinople, A. D. 330, to the beginning of the reign of Justinian I. (527), it was common to paraphrase the books of the Old and New Testaments, and to versify the lives of Christian martyrs. The best of this class of productions came from Egypt, though the empress Eudocia and Basil the Great, bishop of Constantinople, were also quite successful in it. Quintus of Smyrna undertook to furnish some additions the Iliad, but in spite of his evidently faith- ful study of Homer's diction, he was not able to equal it in conciseness and force. Cyrus of Panopolis and Nonnus are the most distin- guished poets of this period ; next to them rank Tryphiodorus, Coluthus, Musaeus, and Christo- dorus. The strangest production of this age is the so-called 'O/^pd/cevrpa, which give the life of Jesus in a kind of Homeric versification, and which are said to have been written either by the empress Eudocia or by Pelagius. The most distinguished ecclesiastical writers were Cyril, Basil, Chrysostom, Eusebius, Gregory Nazian- zen, and Theodoret. The historians treated principally the history of the eastern empire, and the only work of this kind that has come down to us in a somewhat complete condition is Zosimus's account of the empire during the first four centuries. Next in importance is the ecclesiastical history of Socrates. Of Euna- pius, Olympiadorus, Priscus, Candidus, Malchus, and Hesychius of Miletus, we have only a few fragments. The Hivat; r&v Iv Traideia bvofiaa- rov, ascribed to Hesychius, is considered a for- gery. Marcianus's Periplus and a geographi- cal dictionary by Stephanus of Byzantium were the most prominent geographical works. The finest style was displayed in rhetoric. Hime- rius of ,Bithynia was considered a rhetorician above comparison, though the emperor Julian and his teacher Libanius appear to modern criticism far superior to him. Synesius and Procopius show that the art was beginning - ls - ' Works of imagination came prin- to decline. cipally from the pens of Longus, Heliodorus, Achilles Tatius, Xenophon of Ephesus, and Eumathius, of whom the last is the poorest in invention, but the most prodigal with the coloring of Syrian diction. The grammarians Choeroboscus, Theodosius, Orion, and Hesy- chius were less devoted to independent studies than to copying diligently the works of their predecessors ; and the bulky compilations of Hesychius are still of value. The next period is that of mediaeval Greek literature, extending to the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. The abolition of the pagan schools by Justinian closed also the literature of pa- ganism ; nevertheless this period contains ra- ther the history of the decay than of the growth of a literature. After Procopius, the only one who combined a profound knowledge of the political affairs of his country with simplicity of style, and after Agathias, who endeavored to imitate Procopius, there followed a small number of historians, like Petrus, Hesychius, Nonnosus, Theophanes, and Menander Protec- tor, whose productions are neither trustworthy nor entertaining. The chronicle of Syncellus is the most important. The Egyptian Theo- phylactus Simocattes, the Hellene Georgius Pisides, and the Syrian Malalas, are vile in diction and vulgar in sentiment. Geographical studies were represented by the friar Cosmas Indicopleustes, who devised a new system to harmonize with the Bible. The best minds pros- ecuted juridical studies, such as Tribonianus, Dorotheus, Theophilus Antecessor, Theodorus, Stephanus, Cyrillus, Philoxenus, and others. During the 8th and 9th centuries, the period of iconoclasm, literature could be cultivated but little, and the preservation or tradition of many a Greek author is entirely owing to the literary tastes prevailing at the time in Arme- nia, Syria, and Egypt. The most celebrated man of the second half of the 9th century was Photius, the teacher of Leo the Philosopher ; but the literary spirit developed during this period is best represented by Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus, who collected all the literary productions of the past, whether valuable or worthless, long or short, and had them copied by a number of savants into a kind of cyclo- paedia of 53 books. New literary productions became exceedingly scarce, and the few that made their appearance were surprisingly defi- cient in logic, taste, and language. Among them may be mentioned the chronicles and me- moirs of Leontius the younger, Genesius, Leo Grammaticus, Xiphilinus, Hippolytus, and Leo Diaconus, and above all the history of Anna Comnena. The manuscripts of this age swarm with errors in grammar and orthography. The chronicle of Simeon Sethos, toward the end of the llth century, is considered the first monu- ment in prose of modern Greek ; but no poeti- cal work is known that dates back further than the 12th century. During the interval between the conquest of Constantinople and the strug- gle for independence in the 19th century, only