Constantine Lascaris

of the arts), but because I was ^A strongly desirous of the peace of the Churches, and of the restoration of our race to its ancient dignity through your height; being moved long ago by this alone, I have already debated these matters with the most blessed Pope. But you, O most divine Emperor, live on, leading our race back to its ancient happiness, and bear with my ignorance and wordiness.

CONSTANTINUS LASCARIS

NOTITIA

Hieronymus Ragusa in his *Elogia Siculorum*: Constantinus Lascaris, a Byzantine patrician, when Constantinople had succumbed to the power of the Turks after the hardships of a foul and long-lasting war, in the year of our regained salvation 1454, with a most noble spirit disdaining that vile servitude and unworthy tyranny of the barbarians, migrated to Italy—as if to a common home for the greatest men—along with other nobles of equal fortitude, as a fugitive; and he brought with him, like Aeneas with the Trojan household gods, Greek letters.

First, in Milan, having been generously received by Francesco Sforza, the ruler of Milan, he publicly taught those letters to the very great benefit of the youth. Then, having set out for Rome, he bound Cardinal Bessarion to himself with the tightest bond of friendship, by affinity of both birth and character. From there, having been invited with great rewards by Ferdinand, he taught eloquence and his native language in Naples with every praise.

Finally, sailing to Sicily, he fixed his permanent residence at Messina, attracted by the healthy temperature of the climate, the pleasantness of the soil, and the most refined manners of the citizens, and also because there was frequent arrival of ships at Messina from the East.

^A Thus, that he might move the affairs of his own people back and forth more easily, he would mitigate the bitter misfortune of exile with its own honorable cause, and with this consolation as well. Under King John of Aragon, in the year 1165, he was granted citizenship by the senate and gifts by the citizens. Being most agreeable to both, he imparted such gentle disciplines there with the renown of his name that men of power sent their sons from Italy to Sicily to be educated. ^B Pietro Bembo of Venice, still an adolescent, who was later co-opted among the crimson-clad Fathers by Clement VII, became a student of Constantine and cherished him in the place of a parent. By his will, he bequeathed his library to the senate, which he had brought from Greece most amply furnished with a wealth of the most select books, and he left his own virtues as examples to the citizens. By the same public treasury of the senate and by the most sorrowful tears of the citizens, funeral rites were performed for him when he died. ^C A marble tomb received his most precious ashes in the church of the Carmelites, which, having been demolished a few years ago, Paolo Bellio, S.J., laments, since such is the voracity of time that it spares neither these insane piles, constructed over the span of many centuries, and often dissolves the labors of many peoples in a single day: yet the memory of Constantine flourishes to this age, and will never grow old, derived as it is from the greater value of his name through the length of the years. Thus far Hieronymus Ragusa. ^D Constantine Lascaris expended his effort on the arrangement of an excellent Greek grammar after Chrysoloras and Gaza, because he judged very truly that grammar was the foundation of the knowledge of all disciplines and arts. These labors he undertook at Milan for the convenience of the excellent youth desirous of Greek letters, and completed them at Messina, just as he himself teaches at the end of the third book of his grammatical work, where he also relates what resources he used for its composition. The *Institutions* of Constantine's great grammar, prepared for the acquisition of a more perfect knowledge of the Greek language, were received with applause; this fact, along with the praises heaped upon them by those well-versed in these letters, as well as the fact that they were often formerly adorned...

Constantine Lascaris

...attracted to Messina by the fame of this doctor of letters, and others, on account of him himself, as Aldus says, whom at that time he drew from Italy from Athens, and those who, having obtained an exceptional knowledge of the Greek language with this master, held the foremost place along with Urban, is Pietro Bembo; of whom Jo. Casa in his *Life*, which exists among the *Lives of Selected Men*, published at London in the year 1631, p. 142, says: "He went to Sicily to Constantine Lascaris for the sake of Greek letters, and tarried there for three years; and he profited so much in talent, labor, and assiduity that he not only knew Greek excellently, but also wrote it politely and lucidly." How greatly indeed Bembo made this teacher of his own esteemed, his letters teach, *Familiar Epistles*, Book I, p. 396, in which he writes to his father from Messina in the year 1492: "We are being educated by the wondrous diligence of Constantine Lascaris, and with love almost paternal. He is altogether the most humane and holy of old men." The same, *Epp.* I. vi, p. 653, replying to Francesco Maurolyco of Messina, where he says that his letters were most grateful to him, adds these things: "For I have recalled to my senses and spirit, by the most sweet commemoration, the memory of that time in which I was at Messina for the learning of Greek letters, more pleasant and certainly also more fruitful than all other times that I have lived since, and [the memory] of Constantine Lascaris, that best and most holy man who educated me."

...imitated the example. G. Gualterius, in *Tabulae antiquit. Siciliae*, p. 179, teaches that this library, filled with Greek manuscript codices, is kept at Messina in the chest commonly called the *Tesoro*. Cf. Jos. Bonfilius in *Descript. Messanae*, Book II, *Thes. antiquit. Siciliae*, vol. IX, p. 26.

...Gabriel, a Venetian patrician, prefixed to Constantine's grammar, says that Lascaris always lived well and happily. Reyna [l. c.] p. 26, praises his chaste morals and the holiness of his life most highly. The same conjectures that he was initiated into sacred orders and was a priest. But the reasons he brings forth are marvelous, namely, that Bembo called him an excellent and most holy man; that in Speronius's dialogue on languages, the title "Monsignore," proper to priests at that time, is attributed to him; and that Lascaris in the preface of his book on grammar professes and demonstrates a contempt for vain glory and riches, and a singular zeal for serving the convenience of others, and that men of the holy order are usually adorned by virtues of this kind.

...to be, Volaterranus *Commentar. urb.*, Book XXI, p. 776, and Thomas Porcacchi in *Descript. CP.*, p. 137, report. Plac. Reyna [l. c.], p. 28, reports that he died that final day after having spent twenty-seven years happily in that city, and it seems that the day of his death occurred in the ninety-third year of the fifteenth century, or the one following. Antonius Saxius included him also in his *Typographic-literary History of Milan*, p. 175 seq.

(a) Joannes Yriarte in the *Preface to the Catalog of Greek Manuscripts at Madrid*: "The catalog," he says, "consists for the greatest part of miscellaneous codices, of which Constantine Lascaris, the Byzantine, a refugee into Italy after the taking of Constantinople, a man most learned in the art of grammar and the humanities, and also a most diligent writer, collected about sixty from everywhere, and described them with his own hand; he also partly supplied or augmented them, and finally illustrated them with scholia or annotations." [index: entries preserved]

^A This is attested by the editions which Fabricius (12) and, above all, Maittairius (13) review. The first Greek Grammar of Constantine Lascaris, revised by Demetrius the Cretan, was printed by Dionysius Paravisinus at Milan in the year 1476 in a fourfold form; and this is not only his first edition, but—a fact that confers singular distinction upon it—it is the first book entirely printed in Greek since the invention of typography (14). Bernard de Montfaucon (15), in describing the manuscripts of the library of Santa Maria in Florence, notes this extremely rare Milanese edition of Lascaris’s Greek grammar among them. Of the many editions that followed it, two especially seem worthy of mention: the Venetian edition of Aldus Manutius and the Florentine edition of Philippus Giunta. Indeed, regarding the Venetian edition, because Lascaris's grammatical *Institutions* were frequently requested from him—since, as he says in his preface, printed copies were lacking—Aldus published them from his own press in Venice in 1494 in-quarto, as it is commonly called. These were far more correct than the previously published editions, as they were revised according to a copy amended by Constantine's own hand, and were supplemented with a Latin translation by John, a monk of Piacenza, though this is less approved by all, along with certain other minor works. He published them again in 1512, augmented by a second and third book (16). The other edition, most worthy of mention, is the Florentine one (17). Like the later Aldine edition, it contains three books of Lascaris’s Grammar: 1, On the eight parts of speech; 2, On construction; 3, On the noun and the verb; and also a little book on the pronoun, regarding every dialect and poetic usage; to which other minor works were also added. All these were printed in Greek with a Latin translation in Florence, by the labor and at the expense of Philippus Giunta, in the year of the Lord 1515, in-quarto, and were dedicated by Bernardo Giunta to Petrus Victorius, who writes thus in the preface to this edition: “Not unaware of how necessary even the smallest precepts of grammar are ^B even to the most learned man, it came to the mind of Constantine Lascaris, whom illustrious Byzantium once birthed, to strike these most beautiful writings with our most beautiful types.”

Constantine also composed two books at Messina: one on Greek writers who were Calabrian by birth, and the other on Greek writers who were Sicilian by birth; and the former he dedicated to Alphonsus of Aragon, Duke of Calabria, and the latter to Ferdinand Acuña, Viceroy of Sicily. Both were published by the most learned Abbot Franciscus Maurolycus in his *History of Sicily* (Sicanica), published at Messina in 1562, and inserted into Volume IV of the *Treasury of Antiquities and Histories of Sicily*, book 1, pages 22 sqq.; and from there, Joannes Albertus Fabricius took them and presented them in his *Bibliotheca Graeca*, volume XIV, pp. 22 sqq.; the latter, indeed, the above-lauded Hieronymus Ragusa also translated into his *Sicilian Eulogies*.

Besides these, he also wrote the life of St. Demetrius the martyr and dedicated it to Julian Centelles, the governor of Messina (18). From Greek he converted into Latin: 1, The letter of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the people of Messina, as it is called: a translation by which he won great favor (19) with the Messinians, who hold it to be true and authentic; and for this reason, he is celebrated both by other defenders of the same epistle and in ^C what concerns the annual public solemn rite, which is held therein.

II. The Acts of the Apostles Peter and Paul, in which the arrival of Paul into the city of Messina is recorded; that version, sent to the senators administering the government of the city, the same Reyna presents together with the Greek text, in the *Notitia Messanensis*, part II, page 92 sq., and from there J. A. Fabricius repeats it in *Bibliotheca Graeca*, vol. XIV, page 36 sqq.; III. The Life of St. Agatha, virgin and martyr, which is still preserved in the Treasury of the city of Messina; IV. The hymns of Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary. J. Fabricius reports that an epitome of the fifteen books of Herodian by Constantine Lascaris exists in the Joannaean Library at Hamburg. Moreover, in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, his Greek works are preserved, as J. A. Saxius testifies: *On the construction of words*; *Solutions of certain grammatical questions*; *Prolegomena to Orpheus*; *An epistle to Bartholomew of Sulmona*, against Philelphus, in which he censures him because he boasted too much of his skill in the Greek language, condemning several of his errors, and explaining the genuine origin and meaning of certain words.

CONSTANTINE LASCARIS EPISTLE TO JOHN GATUS, BISHOP OF CATANIA.

^A Constantine Lascaris to the illustrious and learned John Gatus, Bishop of Catania, greeting.

Among those many and wonderful things which fertile Sicily has produced, I think that this holds the first and most honorable place: that she has nurtured not a few learned men and skillful inventors; so that not one of the islands, not even the once noble Peloponnese, could be compared to her. If, therefore, she is celebrated for the produce of her grain and horses, how much more is she to be celebrated for such men, by whose wisdom and virtue she is ennobled and spreads to the lips of all; and this so much the more, as wisdom excels all else. For horses serve the needs of the body, and by grain the body is nourished; but wisdom, the mistress of all things, forming the soul for better things, makes her followers immortal. Truly, from the time when the Greeks occupied Sicily, she chose this place as her seat, and organized cities, laws, customs, and virtues; and she rendered the Sicani and Sicels, who were once wild and living the life of nomads, gentle and taught them in civil institutions; whence she produced such men that their memory has not been effaced even after a long time. I have committed to writing the lives of these men, collected not without labor, and I have sent them to you as you requested, thinking that, to you, the pre-

^A ...to apply yourself to the reading, inasmuch as you happen to be wiser than the rest in every branch of knowledge. From this it is understood that it is neither absurd nor impossible that Sicilians should be esteemed today as they were of old, and that you, being a Sicilian and the descendant of those famous Greeks, from whom all good things, so to speak, have come not only to the Latins but to other nations as well, are set before us as an example.

Thus, just as once Empedocles, Gorgias, Charondas, and Stesichorus lived, so now, since the time the Latins took possession of the island, there have been many poets, and even more rhetoricians, philosophers, and theologians. And if there were no one else, you alone would suffice in place of all, excelling in everything and renewing the ancient fame of your fatherland, and surpassing your ancestors—a thing surely desirable to your forefathers—by true wisdom and by a double language; so that they were Greeks, but you are both Latin and Greek: one mind in two tongues, adorning the one with the beauties of the other. Indeed, if those ancients had a perception of present things, they would be moved with great joy, and before all others, Dicaearchus and Aristocles, having such a fellow citizen endowed with divine gifts and knowing everything: for you are a poet, a rhetorician, a philosopher, a theologian, a mathematician; you are the father of knowledge, the leader and source of discourse, by which all Sicily will now be irrigated, just as Italy was once by the wise Pythagoras. Being such a man, therefore, and having become bishop of such an admirable city, appear as the savior of letters, and make the studies in Catania, which have fallen into decay, far more honorable than those of the Italians; so that in your presence the Sicilians may not have need of others, and what seems obscure to the Latins may become clear through your diligence; for you are an excellent interpreter, an interpreter who does not know how to err; whose name posterity, receiving it passed down to itself, will endow with immortality. Farewell, and read the Sicilians whom you desired.

CONSTANTINE LASCARIS THE BYZANTINE ON GREEK WRITERS, SICILIANS BY BIRTH.

Constantine Lascaris to Ferdinand Acuña, Viceroy of Sicily, greetings.

If those ancients labored so greatly, most illustrious prince, not only so that they might become learned, but also that they might have an eternal name among posterity, shall we not also labor, out of love for both fatherland and knowledge, so that we may bring forth from darkness into the light those names of theirs long since consigned to oblivion—due, I believe, to an ignorance of our language—and recall them to human notice, especially so that we may increase the glory which Sicily achieves from her own illustrious men? Indeed, although the island has produced not a few famous men, yet most are unknown due to the injury of time and the calamities of the Greeks. And so, as many as we could from Laertium, ^D...

Philostratus, Suidas, and other monuments of the ancients, we have collected here in this ^A compendium, and have dedicated it to you, most excellent viceroy, who take the greatest pleasure in the antiquity of historical events and the noble studies of literature, and for this reason pursue men of letters with singular benevolence. I shall therefore begin with our Messenians, since Messana is the first corner of Trinacria, and the key and beginning of the kingdom. Read on, therefore, happy Ferdinand, ornament of Sicily, and love me as you do.

2. Dicaearchus Siculus Messenius, Peripatetic philosopher, orator, and geometer, a student of Aristotle: he gave laws and statutes to his fellow citizens, wrote much on philosophy, and also a description of the whole of the Peloponnese and the customs of Greece in three books: he also wrote a Polity of the Lacedaemonians ^B which, by a certain statute, they were accustomed to hear read annually.

3. Arisocles Siculus Messenius, Peripatetic philosopher, published ten books on natural philosophy, and as many on moral philosophy; also an Art of Rhetoric, and a comparison of Homer and Plato, as to which was more learned, in which he commemorates countless philosophers and their opinions.

4. Ibycus Siculus Messenius, historian and poet, one of the nine lyric poets of Greece, a Rhegian by birth. He composed many things in the Doric dialect. He was the first to invent the instrument called the sambuca. Having been captured in a certain forest of Calabria by robbers and about to be killed by them, he said to some cranes flying by by chance: “At least let you be witnesses of my death and avengers.” When he had been killed, the robbers, sitting in a theater on a certain day for the sake of watching, when they happened to see cranes flying, said to one another: “Behold the cranes of Ibycus.” A certain person hearing this, having suspected what was the case, reported it to the prefect of the city, who, having discussed and investigated the matter, condemned them to the gallows. Whence the proverb arose in a clear case: "The cranes of Ibycus." Which the blessed Cyril affirms occurred by divine providence. ^C

5. Lycus or "Wolf" in Latin, as he was called, a Messenian historian and poet, wrote many things about Sicily and Libya.

6. Polycleus Messenius, a most celebrated philosopher and physician, who freed the Agrigentine tyrant Phalaris from an incurable disease, as is gathered from the first epistle of Phalaris.

7. Timotheus Taurominitanus, a rather sharp-tongued orator; whom the Athenians called "Epitimaeus," that is, a critic. He composed eight books on the deeds of Sicily and Italy, as well as *On arguments and other things necessary to the art of oratory*, and also *On the errors of all historians*, whom he attacks most bitterly.

8. Charondas Cataneus, a Pythagorean philosopher and lawgiver, who gave laws to all the Chalcidians who were inhabitants of Italy and Sicily.

9. Diodorus Siculus Argyraensis, a most outstanding historian, who served in the army under Tiberius Caesar. He composed a History in forty books, which ^D he called a Library: concerning the antiquity of the Egyptians, of Sicily and other islands, of the Trojan war, of the deeds of Alexander and the Romans up to his own time, of which six translated by Poggio Florentino are in circulation. The others are scarcely found. I, however, saw all his books in the library of the Emperor of Constantinople.

10. Demeter, called the Sicilian woman and lawgiver, as Diodorus testifies, who first taught the Sicilians the cultivation of grain; whose daughter Proserpina, of extraordinary beauty, was snatched away near the city of Enna by Orcus, king of the Molossians.

11. Philonides Siculus Ennensis, a most celebrated physician.

12. Philistion Siculus, an excellent philosopher and physician, in medicine a teacher of Eudoxus of Cnidus.

13. Gorgias Leontinus, orator and sophist, a student of Empedocles and Tisias. He was the first to read the art of rhetoric publicly at Athens, and taught many. He published much on the art, and composed many things. Three of his Orations exist, which I read in the Florentine library of St. Mark.

14. Herodicus Leontinus, brother of Gorgias, a most celebrated physician.

15. Dinomenes Syracusanus, devoted to letters: son of that tyrant, namely Hieron, who was devoted to letters and music; that powerful Gelon, Polybius, and Thrasybulus.

16. Hieron Syracusanus, the tyrant, son of Dinomenes, brother of Gelon; he was liberal and beneficent toward men of letters and his own people.

17. Hieronymus Syracusanus, nephew of Hieron, a man indeed most learned, but he was most cruel.

18. Dionysius the first, Syracusanus, nephew of Hieron, a learned man and a most cruel tyrant. He wrote Tragedies, Comedies, and a History. It is read about him that a certain old woman of Himera had seen in her sleep that she had ascended to the heavens, and under the seat of Jupiter saw a man in torment bound by an iron chain: and when she asked who it was, she heard that it was the slayer of Sicily. After a few years, when she saw the cruelty of Dionysius, she disclosed the dream, which the tyrant having heard, he put the woman herself to death.

19. Dionysius the second, first son of the former, philosopher and orator, student of Plato, composed Epistles and a Commentary on the poems of the comic poet Epicharmus.

20. Another Dionysius Syracusanus, a cruel and learned tyrant; he wrote tragedies, comedies, and a history.

21. Dion Syracusanus, the tyrant, student of Plato, brother of Aristomache, wife of the first Dionysius. He expelled the second Dionysius, by whom later he was expelled.

22. Hermocrates Syracusanus, a man truly political and a lover of his country, endowed with wondrous learning, father or father-in-law of the elder Dionysius.

23. Epicharmus and Hippocrates, brothers of the Poeni, but born in Syracuse, famous in arms and letters and leaders of forces; by fraud, however, they attempted to incline the Sicilians from the Romans toward the Carthaginians. ^A

24. Archimedes of Syracuse, a philosopher and most acute geometer, and author of the mechanical art, wrote much on geometry and a commentary on Homer. His works were expounded by Eudocius of Ascalon, and his life was written by Proclus Lycius.

25. Achaeus, or Achivus in Latin, a Syracusan, a comic poet, composed ten comedies.

26. Athenagoras of Syracuse, a politician and most pleasant orator, and a lover of his country.

27. Antiochus of Syracuse, a historian, who wrote regarding the Romans and "Sicilian Histories," whom Pausanias cites.

28. Bion of Syracuse, elegant, who also composed [works] on the art of rhetoric.

29. Dinolochus of Syracuse, a comic poet, a disciple of Epicharmus, wrote fourteen comedies in the Doric dialect.

30. Epicharmus, a comic poet of Syracuse, or from the Sicanian town of Castro, a pupil of Pythagoras, the first to invent comedy, and also three Greek double letters. He published many other comedies. He was fined by Hiero for having recited lascivious verses before the queen.

31. Eudoxus of Sicily, son of the tyrant Agathocles, a comic poet, composed many comedies, from which he achieved victory eight times.

32. Themistogenes of Syracuse, a historian: he wrote much concerning the ascent of King Cyrus and his own fatherland.

33. Theodorus of Syracuse, an orator, who, besides other things, composed much on military matters.

[Following the text block starting "Tisias..."] ^A Tisias, or Ctesias, a poor man from among the citizens, who, having learned the art, had promised double the fee: but when taught, he denied the promised payment. Summoned to judgment, Tisias questioned Corax: "What is the art of oratory?" to which Corax answered, "The art of persuasion." Tisias, however, argued from this definition of the art as follows: "If I persuade you, Corax, as one who persuades, I shall not pay, for I have won: but if I do not persuade you, I shall not pay, for I have not learned the art by not persuading." Corax, on the contrary: "Nay, if I persuade you, Tisias, I shall take the promised [fee] as victor: but if I do not persuade you, you shall still pay the fee, since I have made you such that I could not persuade you." Then the judges, marveling at the cleverness of both, began to cry out: "A bad crow, a bad egg," that is, from a grave teacher comes a graver disciple, which later passed into a proverb, whenever evil comes from evil. This Corax, as Aristotle attests, was the first to edit the art of oratory.

^B 37. Ctesias or Tisias of Syracuse, previously mentioned, a disciple of the aforementioned Corax and a crafty rhetorician. A. Gellius calls these men Protagoras and Evathlus.

38. Lysias, a most pleasant orator, son of Cephalus, a disciple of Tisias and Gorgias, a Syracusan, one of the ten great orators of Greece, published several epistles, an "Art of Oratory," and more than three hundred orations, of which few remain.

39. Menecrates of Syracuse, a most celebrated physician, freed men from the comitial [epileptic] disease. He wanted himself to be called Jupiter, and those whom he healed he wanted to be his subjects.

40. Simmias of Syracuse was a philosopher and a pupil of Stilpon, whose daughter, who was not very chaste, he married.

41. Monimus of Syracuse, a Cynic philosopher and son of Diogenes the Cynic; a man truly very elegant and copious, he wrote much in philosophy, but he had been a servant to a certain Corinthian money-changer. He, having scorned glory, always sought the truth.

42. Moschus of Syracuse, a grammarian and poet, who wrote much, whom I think was also called Moschion.

34. Theocritus of Syracuse, a most excellent poet, an illustrious author of bucolics. He wrote several Eclogues in a different idiom, of which 39 exist. The bucolic genre, as some say, was invented among the Lacedaemonians; as others say, at Tyndarida, a city of Sicily, at the time when Orestes, with Iphigenia, brought back the image of Diana from the Tauri. Others, which is truer, assert it was invented at Syracuse. For when the Syracusans, after many seditions and slaughters, returned to harmony through the work of Diana, Dorian shepherds celebrating Diana sang in this kind of song. ^C

43. Sosiphanes of Syracuse, a tragic poet, contemporary of Euripides, one of the seven tragic poets in the time of Philip and Alexander. He wrote 73 tragedies, in which, concerning the male and female characters, he achieved the palm seven times. Likewise other [works] in both meter and prose. They say that Plato, reading his poems, fell asleep.

35. Callias of Syracuse, a historian, wrote many histories, and in them the deeds of the Sicilian tyrant Agathocles.

56. [sic] Corax, or Corvus in Latin, of Syracuse, inventor and organizer of the art of rhetoric or oratory. For when the Syracusans, free from tyranny and peaceful, had organized their republic among themselves, Corax was the first to begin to exercise himself and by the power of speech to persuade and dissuade, and to warn all to live well and freely, and for this reason he was most pleasing to all. He divided the oration into three parts, namely the exordium, the narration, and the epilogue; and being asked by his fellow citizens, he read the art publicly, and educated many, of whom one...

44. Philemon of Syracuse, a comic poet in the time of Alexander, lived 90 years and published the same number of comedies, and died from vehement laughter.

45. Philistus of Syracuse, or from Naucratis, a historian, wrote many [things] about Sicily. He was a relative of the tyrant Dionysius, and died in the war waged against the Carthaginians.

46. Another Philistus of Syracuse, wrote many [things] *On Egyptian Matters*, in 12 books; *On Sicanian Matters*, in 11 books. Likewise *On Bacchus*, *On the Theology of the Egyptians*, in 6 books; *On Syria and Libya*. He [was] by Dionysius...

^A senior driven into exile, there he completed a good part of his History.

47. Phormis of Syracuse, a comic poet, the inventor of comedy, was dear to Gelon the tyrant, and [was] the tutor of his sons. He wrote many comedies. He was the first to use a long garment reaching to the feet, and a stage with red skins.

48. Philemon the Syracusan, or Athenian, a comic poet, published many things; he lived one hundred and one years, with his faculties always sound. Lately, while dozing, he saw nine girls leaving his house, and when he asked them why they were leaving, they replied: "It is no longer permitted to inhabit this house." And having awakened, he related the vision to his son, and having finished what he was composing, he breathed his soul out while falling asleep.

49. Philemon, son of this man, was also a comic poet; he wrote four comedies.

50. Nicetas the Syracusan philosopher said that all things come to be through harmony and necessity, and that the earth is moved according to the first circle, as Laertius says.

51. Orpheus of Camarina, an epic poet, who composed a *Descent into the Underworld*, and many other things.

52. Timagoras of Gela, a philosopher, a disciple of Theophrastus, and from there of the aforementioned Stilpo.

53. Euclid of Gela, a Platonic philosopher and most distinguished geometer; he was different from that one from Megara about whom Laertius [writes], and who wrote dialogues, as Proclus says in the second book of his commentary on the first of Euclid. And as Heron writes, he lived in the time of Ptolemy the First, younger than Plato, but older than Eratosthenes and Archimedes, and he was a Geloan, as is gathered from the words of Laertius. He perfected many things taken from Eudoxus and Theaetetus, and wrote the thirteen books of the *Elements*; for two others were added by Hypsicles and Aristaeus—item ^B Music, Optics, Catoptrics, Phenomena, Porisms, Data, which are rather of Theon. He, as Proclus says, was asked by King Ptolemy if there was any path to geometry more concise than the elementary one, and he replied that there was no royal road or track for grasping geometry.

54. Aristotle the Siculian, an orator, composed several things, and an *Oration against the Panegyric of Isocrates the orator*.

55. Acron of Agrigentum, a noble physician, older than Hippocrates, the son of Xeno. He had lectured publicly in Athens together with Empedocles the philosopher, and wrote many things in the Doric dialect *On Medicine*. To him is attributed that epitaph which Laertius records in the *Life of Empedocles*: The highest physician Acron, coming from Acragas, The high tombs of the towering summit hold.

56. Empedocles of Agrigentum, a noble and wealthy Pythagorean philosopher, wore a golden crown on his head, and bronze sandals on his feet, and sought after ^C laurel and the glory of God from the hands of men. He read publicly in Athens, and wrote in verse two books *On the Nature of Things* and *On Purifications*, [containing] five thousand verses. Also *On Medicine*, in meter and prose. Some say he was the first orator then; but Laertius writes of his life at length. He perished in the fire of Etna; for one of his bronze sandals, which the flame vomited up, was found near the crater of the mountain.

57. Empedocles another of Agrigentum, a nephew, a tragic poet, wrote twenty-four tragedies.

58. Carcinus of Agrigentum, a tragic poet, composed 16 tragedies.

59. Metellus of Agrigentum, a learned man and an excellent musician, taught Plato music.

60. Polus of Agrigentum, an orator and great sophist, a disciple of Gorgias of Leontini. He set forth the genealogy of the Greeks and barbarians who had set out for Troy.

61. Telemachus of Agrigentum, devoted to learning, and a Calcyopian [or Chalcidian] by whom the Eumenides were instructed, whose son Gnessidamus was the father of Theron the tyrant of the Agrigentines and Xenocrates: all of whom were studious.

62. Phalaris of Astypalaea, private in his homeland, [fearing] suspicion of tyranny, came to Sicily and, by the persuasion of his friends, was made tyrant of the Agrigentines. He was a man truly of very great genius, studious, and most liberal toward good and learned men. Jupiter prolonged his life by two years, as Stephanus says, because he had treated Chariton and Menalippus humanely. ^D He ordered Perillus, the originator of his torment, to be burned first in the bronze bull, whose epistles are well-known.

63. Demetrius Siculus Calactinus, a most distinguished historian, wrote 20 books about Asia and Europe.

64. Caecilius, who is also called Archagathus, a Sicilian from the town of Calacte, Greek by nation and language, yet a Jew by law, a most distinguished orator. He lectured publicly in Rome in the time of Augustus Caesar. He composed many things: *Against the Phrygians* in two books; *On the Attic Style* according to the elements, which are still read among the Suda; *On the Comparison of Demosthenes and Aeschines*; also [of] Demosthenes and Cicero; also *On the Style of the Ten Orators of Greece*.

65. Thales Siculus Calactinus, an orator, described the successions of the philosophers and their sects.

66. Theognis Siculus Megarensis, a moral and admonitory poet, composed many elegies, of which some exist, and an admonitory poem.

67. Probus, a most learned man from Lilybaeum, to whom that [famous] Porphyry had come to be seen and heard.

68. Stesichorus of Himera, a most excellent lyric poet and philosopher, in the time of Phalaris. He was called Tisias, and because he established a chorus,

Stesichorus was so called as though he were the "stator" (founder) of the chorus. He had a brother named Marinus, a geometer, and Halianactes, a lawgiver, as well as very learned daughters. He wrote many things in the Dorian dialect, none of which survive. When he wrote against Helen, he lost his sight. He recovered it after composing a Palinode. He was the son of Euphemius, though some say Eupborbius, others Euclid, others Hyetis, and others Hesiod. Some report that he was born in Metauria in Italy, others in the town of Palanthum in Arcadia, and that he fled from there to Catana, where he died. Before the city gate, which is called Stesichoria after him, his tomb had eight columns and as many steps and angles; a vaulted monument of it still exists, which the people call the house of the Blessed Mary of Bethlehem.

70. Pythias and Damon of Sicily, of the Pythagorean sect, were joined by the greatest mutual friendship. When Dionysius of Syracuse had decided to put one of them to death and had set a time for him to go home and settle his affairs, the other offered himself to the tyrant as a surety for his friend's return, certain of his friend's constancy. Nor did his opinion deceive him; for he arrived at the appointed hour and freed his surety. Dionysius, admiring the loyalty of both, acquitted the prisoner and begged them to receive him as a third into their fellowship.

CONSTANTINE LASCARIS THE BYZANTINE: ON THE GREEK WRITERS OF THE CALABRIAN FATHERLAND

Constantine Lascaris to Alphonso of Aragon, Duke of Calabria, greetings.

1. Since I have long turned over in my mind, most illustrious Prince, how much your most opulent Calabria delights you, both for the various cities, towns, and villages within it, and for its most pleasant mountains, hills, lakes, and rivers—to say nothing of other things as worthy of admiration as they are of praise, such as the hunting and the most honorable physical exercises—I have decided to briefly recount to you the illustrious men and philosophers of this province. For I think this will be of no small delight to you, since you are most studious of speculations and antiquities. If I wished to explain how much Calabria abounds in these matters, it would be a task requiring a huge volume. For I see that Italy, Sicily, and a part of our own Greece have been illustrated by Calabrian philosophers. But I shall gather ^B into a compendium the men distinguished in letters and virtue whom Calabria once produced, beginning with the father of philosophy and its most abundant source, Pythagoras.

2. Pythagoras therefore had as a father Timesarchus, a Greek goldsmith of Italy, who journeyed from the Tyrrhenian islands (which the Athenians inhabited after the Tyrrhenians had been expelled) to the island of Samos and married a Samian woman, who bore him Pythagoras, nicknamed the Samian. This Pythagoras, on the neighboring island of Scyros, heard the philosopher Pherecydes; after his death, he visited the Egyptian and Babylonian magi, from whom he brought philosophy and other sciences to Samos. After the death of his parents there, fleeing the tyranny of Polydeuces, he departed for Croton and Metapontum, cities of Calabria, with nearly two hundred disciples, and settled there. There, his disciples, instructed by him that the goods of friends ought to be common, constituting a sort of harmony and republic among themselves, lived in common. Pythagoras made many Calabrians, Greeks, and others—more than five hundred—very learned. He established laws for the Greeks who inhabited Italy. While living in Croton, he married Theano, the daughter of Brontinus of Croton, who, instructed by her husband, wrote much in the Dorian dialect, including *On the Life of her Husband* and *Moral Epistles*. From her, Pythagoras received Telauges as his successor in his school, whom many, including that Empedocles of Agrigentum, heard. He composed four books, *On the Tetrad*, for which the Egyptians held him as a god. He had three daughters: two, Salya and Erigone, were learned and their Epistles survive; and a third, Damo, who was very wealthy, to whom on his deathbed he bequeathed three books he had composed, commanding that she never give them outside the doors of her house. She valued these books so highly that she did not produce them even when compelled by poverty, though she could have sold them for a great price. Dying, she left these books to her daughter Biscala, in the same way ^C as she had received them from her father.

3. Zamolxis the Scythian, a slave to Pythagoras, was a very great philosopher. Anacharsis the Scythian philosopher came to see him and other Pythagoreans from the Hyperborean Scythians into Calabria in the time of Phalaris, whose Epistles still exist. The Scythians had this Zamolxis as their lawgiver.

4. Philolaus of Croton, a Pythagorean philosopher, was the first to publish the secrets of Pythagoras, from whom Plato the Athenian, being very covetous of money, bought those three books of Pythagoras already mentioned when he came to Italy to see the Pythagoreans, for 40 Alexandrian minas, which Dionysius the second, tyrant of the Syracusans, paid. From these books, when read, they say that Plato composed that most weighty work, *On the Nature of the World*, in which he introduces that Timæus of Locri speaking in the Doric dialect.

5. Alcmeon of Croton was a Pythagorean philosopher and a most excellent physician, who wrote many things about philosophy and medicine; he said that the soul was immortal and moved perpetually like the sun.

6. Milo of Croton, a most celebrated Pythagorean, from whose burning house Pythagoras fled, was killed by persecutors along with many disciples.

7. Democedes of Croton, a learned man and an excellent physician, flourished in the time of Darius.

8. Orpheus of Croton, learned in Pythagorean studies, an Epicurean, adhered to Pisistratus, the tyrant of the Athenians. While dwelling there, he wrote the *Argonautica* in heroic verse, and other works.

^A It is said that this same Mystellus received another oracle that was also quite ambiguous, and it was this: "Where you find rain from a clear sky, build a city." But since a clear sky signifies serenity, he, being confused, did not understand the god; however, when he had traveled through many places in both Apulia and Calabria, he finally came to the place itself where, because Aethria his concubine had shed tears in abundance from the labor of the long journey, so that the ground grew wet, Mystellus understood the oracle. And there he founded a city, with inhabitants flocking to the new colony from all sides, although this was many years before the arrival of Pythagoras. Croton, therefore, was a city famous in private and public deeds. For it fought alongside other Greeks against the neighboring barbarians, and it produced many magnanimous men, among whom was Phayllus the athlete, a most excellent dancer; who, carried in his trireme to the aid of the Greeks, fought against Xerxes alongside the Athenians and Lacedaemonians. Alexander, many years later, mindful of this favor, sent the spoils of the barbarians from Asia to the Crotoniates along with other Greeks. But let us omit the Crotoniates and come to the Locrians and others.

10. Timæus of Locri, a Pythagorean philosopher, whom that wisest of men, Plato, came to see, and whom he introduced in his works *On the Nature of the World*, namely in the dialogue *Timæus*.

11. Eurytus of Locri, or Tarentum, as some think, was a Pythagorean philosopher, whom Plato also saw.

12. Zaleucus of Locri, a Pythagorean philosopher and lawgiver, gave laws to his fellow citizens with the counsel of Minerva.

13. Theano of Locri, a woman, was a lyric poetess who composed many things in lyric verses about her homeland.

14. Xenocrates of Locri was a heroic poet and a most excellent musician.

15. Euryphonius of Locri was a learned man and an excellent citharoedist. A statue of him holding a cithara once existed at Locri. For the city of the Locrians was once famous, they who were colonists who set out from the Locris that inhabits the borders of Crete, under the leadership of Evander, shortly after the founding of Croton and Syracuse. But now we must speak of certain Rhegians.

16. Glaucus, a Pythagorean and a most excellent musician, a Rhegian, contemporary with Democritus, whom he himself asserts to have been a Pythagorean.

17. Andromadas, a Pythagorean philosopher and a lawgiver, who gave laws to the Chalcidians who inhabit Thrace.

18. Pythagoras, another Rhegian, a most excellent sculptor, was the first to consider the proportion of statues, a disciple of Clearchus of Rhegium, whom Eucherius of Corinth had taught, as Pausanias says.

19. Hippias of Rhegium was an orator and historian. ^A

20. Ibycus, the lyric poet, one of the nine illustrious lyricists, was born at Messana of a father from Rhegium. He was the first to invent the sambuca, an instrument of the Calabrians, and composed much in lyric meter. While traveling through Calabria, he fell into a wood among robbers, and feeling that he was surely about to be killed by them, he said to some cranes that happened to be flying by: “You at least will be witnesses of my death.” They, mocking him, slew him. But the omen was followed by truth; for when the robbers were sitting in a certain theater to watch, and cranes happened to pass over, one said to the other, “Look, the cranes of Ibycus.” When some heard this, suspecting the truth (for the report of the murder had been bruited about), they reported it to the magistrates of the city, by whose order the robbers were captured, diligently examined, confessed their crime, and were soon put to death by hanging. Hence the proverb originated among Greek and Latin lawyers: “The cranes of Ibycus,” that is, a certain matter made manifest by certain evidence.

21. The city of Rhegium—as Strabo says—is so called from *rumpendo*, because there Sicily was severed from Italy by the surge of the sea or an earthquake. The Rhegians, however, were Greeks, colonists of the Chalcidians, although some Lacedaemonians also migrated into Calabria.

22. Alcman the lyric poet was from the most ancient city of Messana, near Rhegium.

23. Cynomachus of Thurii, who was the first to write on the opinions of the philosophers.

24. Alexis, from the same city of Thurii, was a comic poet who produced two hundred and forty comedies.

25. Hippasus of Metapontum, a Pythagorean philosopher, who said that the mutations of the world were defined by time. Metapontum was a town founded by the Pylians, who sailed with Nestor after Troy was captured.

26. Archytas, the son of Mnesagoras—or as others say, of Hestiaeus—of Tarentum, was an excellent Pythagorean philosopher and a distinguished geometer. He wrote to Plato, who was staying in Sicily at the time with Dionysius, warning him to beware of the tyrant. Eudoxus of Cnidus, the son of Aeschines, learned geometry from him. He was the first to discover the cube, and by the motion of a semicircle in a cylinder, found two mean proportionals; he was also a mechanic and constructed a wooden dove that flew by itself.

27. Lysides ^C of Tarentum was a Pythagorean philosopher, whose letters still exist.

28. Arístonicus of Tarentum, a philosopher.

29. Heraclides of Tarentum, a learned man and a most famous physician.

30. Rhinthon of Tarentum, a comic poet.

31. Parmenides, a Pythagorean philosopher of Elea, from the ancient city of the Phocaeans, which they called Helas from a certain spring, and thence Helia and Velia. He was the inventor of dialectic and said that there were many worlds. He conspired in arms against Nearchus, or Diomedon, in Lipara, and being questioned, he bit off his own tongue and spat it into the tyrant’s mouth; it is said that the tyrant was then stoned to death by the people.

32. Favorinus of this Velia, as some say, was a most learned man who wrote much and excellently on philosophy, rhetoric, and history; he was a companion of Plutarch, with whom he flourished under Trajan.

33. Empedocles of Catana, a philosopher and orator, from whom Gorgias of Leontini and other Sicilians heard both philosophy and oratory.

34. Charondas of Catana, a Pythagorean philosopher, gave laws to the Chalcidians inhabiting Sicily and Italy.

35. Pythias and Damon, Syracusans, a singular pair of friends, one of whom devoted himself to death for the other; of whom Plutarch writes.

36. But besides other Greeks—the Asian Pythagoreans, Eudoxus, Xenophanes of Colophon, Leucippus the Eleatic, Melissus, Democritus, Heraclitus, Nausiphanes, and Naucides, of whom Epicurus was a disciple—I omit the origins, deeds, and antiquities of cities, and other things which cannot be hidden from you, who are most studious and most familiar with the geographer Strabo. But I will mention this again without shame: that Italy, Sicily, and a great part of our Magna Graecia owe it first to Calabria, your foster-mother, and then especially to Pythagoras and his fellow Pythagoreans. For for nine hundred years, from Pythagoras himself up to the Emperor named Constantine the Great, the doctrine itself and the Pythagorean sect flourished throughout those regions. But why do you write this to me? you ask. So that if these things are known to you, I may congratulate you on your knowledge; or if not, that I may make them known to you, and, as you are a most illustrious leader and a youth of the highest promise—educated by the example of so many and such great philosophers whom your Calabria has produced and trained—I may exhort you to the summit of virtues and the desire for the greatest things. May you fare well, ^D long be happy, and live like the aforementioned Constantine, and may you liberate Constantinople—my unhappy fatherland—from the power of the barbarians, and receive me, ready for the service of your highness!

ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL

THE DEEDS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL

CONSTANTINUS LASCARIS TRANSLATOR

It came to pass, after the holy Paul had departed from the island of Gaudos and Melita, that he came to Italy. And it became heard by the Jews who were in the greater of cities, Rome, that Paul had requested ^A to go before Caesar. ^B Therefore, having fallen into great grief and much despondency, they said among themselves: "Is it not enough that he alone has afflicted all our brothers and our parents in Judea and in Samaria and in Palestine, and was not satisfied with these things? But behold, he even comes here, having requested of Caesar, through his assault, to destroy us." The Jews, therefore, all having made a council against Paul, and having been much troubled, it seemed good to them to approach Nero the king, so that he might not permit Paul to come into Rome. Having therefore prepared not a few handsome gifts, and having carried them with them, they approached him with a petition saying: "We beseech you, good king, to send and command into all the provinces of your piety, and to order that a certain Paul, who has afflicted our entire ancestral nation, has requested to come hither, to destroy us also. And it is enough for us, most pious king, the affliction which we have had from Peter." Hearing these things, the king Nero answered them: "It shall be according to your will, and we are writing to all our provinces, so that he may in no way rush toward the regions of Italy." And they also submitted the matter to Simon the Magician, exhorting him, so that, as has been said, he should not set foot in the regions of Italy. ^B While these things were being done, some from the converted Gentiles and those baptized by the proclamation of Peter sent ambassadors to Paul with a letter containing these things:

"Paul, sincere servant of our God Jesus Christ, and brother of Peter, the first of the apostles, we have heard from the teachers of the Jews who are in this greatest of cities Rome, that they have requested of Caesar to send into all his provinces, so that wherever you might be found, you might be put to death. We indeed..."

and we believed and do believe that, just as God did not separate the two great luminaries He created, so He has no power to separate you from one another, that is to say, neither Peter from Paul, nor Paul from Peter. But in truth we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we were baptized, that we are becoming worthy also of your teaching. ^A And Paul, having received the two men sent with the letter on the twentieth of May, was eager and gave thanks to the Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Having set sail from Gaudo-Melete, he did not come through Africa to the parts of Italy, but ran up to Sicily, until he came to the city of Syracuse with the two men sent from Rome to him. And sailing from there, he arrived at Rhegium of Calabria, and from Rhegium he crossed to Messina, and there he ordained a bishop by the name of Bacchus. And having departed from Messina, he sailed to Didymus, and remained there one night, and sailing from there, he came to Puteoli on the second day.

CONSTANTINI LASCARIS

PROOEMIUM TO HIS BOOKS ON GRAMMAR

INDEX OF THE BOOK. The first book contains a light knowledge of the eight parts of speech, after which follows a treatise on the moods and augmentations of verbs. At Milan, it had been composed more broadly. ^B The second contains the syntax of all verbs, according to which it is expedient to write out the theme; and on the seven species of derivatives. On the species subject to nouns. On the endings of adjectives. On numeral nouns. On the syntax of prepositions. On accents in general. The third contains most extensive precepts concerning the noun and verb according to the ancients; on the genders and endings of nouns; on the formations of cases according to every dialect and poetic license; and this is broad and altogether necessary for practical grammar. Likewise on circumflex and barytone verbs. On pronouns according to every dialect. On ascript vowels. ^C On the things already mentioned above, and on the modes of vowels and diphthongs. On the accents of the eight parts of speech.

PROOEMIUM. Just as it is permitted to see wise physicians prescribing medicines according to times, places, and bodies, so also [one may see] diligent grammarians composing precepts according to their fortunes and students. For the most ancient men, with fortune favoring their race, wrote most diligently concerning grammar; ^D

^A that they might render the whole of it in one book. But what we say is evident from the questions of Dionysius Thrax, Aristarchus, Tryphon, Apollonius, and Herodian, in which there is need of memory, of time, and of wealth. Those who came long after them, cutting short their works, compressed them, as did Theodosius, Choeroboscus, and others; whose questions Moschopoulos and his contemporaries shortened due to the misfortune of the race, and obscured the ancient ones. And Moschopoulos almost alone reigned, whose work, although it seemed brief to those of that time compared to the works of the others, later seemed long, burdensome, and unsuited to all students. Hence, few in Greece were diligent about grammar, shunning its length, and no Latin, being of age, was able to learn it. ^B But Manuel Chrysoloras, a studious man, having left his fatherland, came to Italy; and, being the first to begin teaching Italians our tongue, he composed an epitome of moderate length, by which he instructed not a few of the Italians in Florence: namely that Leonard and Carlo Aretino, the pious Ambrogio Traversari, Philelphus, and very many others, who derived such profit from Greek letters that they not only learned and taught them, but also translated many of our works into the Roman tongue. There are about eighty years now since the Italians, having tasted of Greek speech, have not ceased to labor at Greek letters—and more amply and diligently at Latin. For from Greek speeches they have also renewed their own tongue, which had long since been lost through negligence, newly correcting it with useful books. ^C But Florence, that remarkable city, appeared as a metropolis from the time when the council was gathered there, having established Greek libraries and having hired learned Greek scribes; which many Italian cities imitated, and became participants in the Greek tongue, with many learned Greeks fleeing there on account of misfortunes and teaching. This was done first by the wise John Argyropoulos, my teacher, in Padua; and after the conquest of his fatherland, in Florence under the illustrious Cosimo de' Medici, and under Pietro and Lorenzo. This was done also by the most excellent Theodorus Gaza in many Italian cities; and finally in Rome during the time of the wise Cardinal Bessarion, where he arranged grammar most excellently, dividing it into four books. ^D And Franculio in Venice; Andronicus Callistus in many cities and in Bologna; Demetrius Castrenus in Ferrara; Chalcondyles in Padua and Florence; and while others lived in other cities, the Greek language flourished, with not only Greeks teaching it, but also Italians—to such an extent that our

^A ignorance would be a source of shame, and their speech would prevail more in Italy than in Greece, on account of the continuous misfortunes of our race. And if the envy of those who know little and the stinginess of those in power had not prevented it, everything in our time would have been full of Greek learning, just as it was in the time of those ancient, wonderful Romans. But this good was propagated through various epitomes, the narrowness of which has been supplemented by the living voice and the zeal of the listeners; for many young men and old men have learned, which could not have happened through Moschopoulos, when even he himself had arrived at Milan from Crete under Prince Sforza, by whom I also have been rewarded with a salary. Finding no useful epitome among the ancient grammarians—whom I had acquired with great labor—I composed epitomes of many things for the benefit of my students, who were numerous and talented. I wrote first on the declension of the eight parts of speech and other necessary matters; second, on the syntax of verbs according to the Latins; third, most extensively and with great effort, on the noun and the verb; likewise on irregulars, on poetic and rhetorical tropes and figures, and on other things by which I have educated very many in grammar and rhetoric. And I have always taught by means of epitomes—in Milan, in Naples, and in Messana in Sicily—helping many both Greeks and Latins. ^B Therefore, it is not at all indecorous to begin with epitomes, nor is it right to disdain or disparage them, as certain foolish people do; for by their help, rich and poor, children, young men, and old men, whether Greeks or Latins, are thoroughly taught; and it is better to be slightly learned than to be entirely unlearned; for it is possible to advance from small beginnings to great things. This, indeed, if the learned living in Greece had done, they would truly have educated many who were naturally gifted. But now, shrinking from long [courses] and scorning epitomes, they have remained entirely starved of letters. Therefore, I praise all lovers of letters who, of whatever age they may be, can easily begin from the epitomes of a learned teacher, such as they might find, and get a taste of grammar, with which it is pleasant to listen and to read. For what is better or more blessed than letters? Or in what respect will a man excel his fellow man if he is unlearned? For if someone who is rich acquires them, he will have an adornment more excellent than all riches; but if he is poor, they will be a consolation for his troubles and a contempt for the myriad miseries of life. ^C It is, therefore, necessary to study and to adorn the soul with the most beautiful ornament, which can never be taken away and which will remain forever among the living and the dead. ^D

Method of the declension of the eight parts of speech, composed by Constantine Lascaris. Book I.

^A 43 averso. Without a title, the Preface of the second book, the beginning of which is: "These things having been spoken in this way, there follows after this the matter concerning the syntax of verbs." It is somewhat different from the printed version, and more expansive. Constantinus Lascaris *On the construction of certain verbs according to dispositions (that is to say, genera)*. The second book begins: "Since our discourse is concerning the verb, it must first be defined." It ends: "And the verb must be systematized more exhaustively." The following section, which is the final chapter in printed editions, is missing from this second book, titled: *On verbs per se subjunctive and insubjunctive.* In its place, the following chapters occur:

(namely, Lascaris) 37 averso. *On the species of nouns.* 38 *On the terminations of adjectives.* On the same side, reverse. *On numeral nouns.* 39 *On the syntax of prepositions: with which cases they are construed and what they signify.* 41 averso. *On the accidents in general; where also [we treat] of the tenses, of the breathing marks, of punctuation, and the locations of the accents.* These six sections, indeed, are arranged out of order here; in printed copies of the book, they occupy their proper place. 44 averso. After a blank interval of one and a half leaves, there occurs: *Constantinus Lascaris the Byzantine's preface to the third book concerning the noun and the verb*: The preface of Constantinus Lascaris the Byzantine to the third book on the noun and verb. It begins: "In the two books previously published by us." 45 averso. *Constantinus Lascaris the Byzantine's third book concerning the noun and verb.* Constantinus Lascaris the Byzantine's third book on the noun and verb. It begins: "Since our discourse is concerning the noun, it must first be defined, and then divided."

Since the Epilogue, by which this third and final book is closed, contains many things pertaining to the history of Greek literature, which in the printed versions are treated differently and more briefly, I have felt it pleasing to transcribe them and bring them to light.

These things, then, have been spoken as carefully and concisely as possible, derived from various ancient questions for the benefit of the diligent. But since our practical grammar happens to be varied and difficult, and as it were a boundless sea, it is not right for the students to be satisfied only with the epitomes, as if they were mere sketches. Rather, after these, they must read all the ancient questions of Dionysius the Thracian, of Apollonius, and of Herodian and Arcadius—from whom those who came after them drew and composed their own works in Greece—Theodosius and Choeroboscus, Moschopulus also, and Ptochoprodromus, and Scholarius who is of our own time. From these, Manuel Chrysoloras—who preceded us—and Theodorus Gaza—who is of our time—and others, having made abridgments over time and in various cities, composed them in Italy, gratifying the Italians, who, both because of the difference of language and because they were at an age when they had to live among their own people, could not learn our language through the ancients. For this reason, none of them was ever able to become a precise grammarian; for it requires years and labor and countless books so that one might be able to know the matters of grammar precisely. They themselves, being lazy and lacking books, ^B wishing to know everything from a single epitome—that of Chrysoloras, or Theodorus, or mine, Constantinus, which was composed more broadly in Milan and abridged in Messina for our students—are frustrated. For the precise grammarian must read a great many things; not only the old and new questions, but also all the various findings concerning the syntax of all verbs; and the work of Maximus Planudes concerning transitive and intransitive verbs, and the dialogue on irregular verbs; on synonyms; on idioms; on tropes and figures and the affections, [by] Trypho, Choeroboscus, and Plutarch; on breathing marks; on avoiding solecisms and barbarisms; on orthography—the ancient [works] and the second volume by Moschopulus; on qualities and quantities; on the accents of others; and the great prosody of Herodian, and [the work] of Theodosius in twenty books; on those things differing by accent; on meters; various [matters] and all the works of Hephaestion and Triclinius; on the selection of words by Phrynichus, Harpocration, Pollux, Thomas Magister, and Moschopulus; Suidas himself and other lexicons; the Great Etymologicum and the small one; and a great many other things which are found, and which we ourselves have seen, read, and acquired. I leave aside the four theoretical books of Apollonius Dyscolus; and of Arcadius the Byzantine; and of Michael Syncellus; and of John Glykys; and other things from which the wise Theodorus drew most excellently and most learnedly the fourth [work].

[Regarding the work itself,] that which concerns the noun was composed in Milan in the year of the Theogony 1543. The work on the verb and the second book on syntax and other items [were composed] in Messina in Sicily in the year 1543. ^A Forgive me, for to err is a human frailty. May those who read this be well and keep it in mind; and if anything has been stated erroneously, correct it.

CONSTANTINE LASCARIS TO JACOB XIMENIO MURIELLIO, SECRETARY TO THE VICEROY OF THE ISLAND OF SICILY. Concerning the life and writings of Herodian the Grammarian, and of Theodosius, his epitomizer.

Constantine Lascaris to Jacob Ximenio Muriellio, secretary to the viceroy of the island of Sicily, greetings.

Herodian, a man of manifold learning, whose standing in grammar is high, most learned Jacob Ximeni, was the son of that Apollonius of Alexandria. Having departed from his fatherland due to poverty, he sailed to Rome, once the wonderful, common home of all, under the pious Emperor Antoninus, who was just and skilled in both languages. By him he was received with courtesy, honored, and endowed with benefits. He not only enriched the Greek language by his teaching, but, being grateful toward the emperor himself, he also composed many works worthy of admiration, among which was the treatise *On Accents*—I mean the great prosody—which he inscribed to him in twenty books, a work of many lines. This work Theodosius later epitomized, yet he preserved both the number of books and their length, because [the work] could by no means be captured in a very brief summary, especially given the great variety in the accentuation of nouns. Indeed, though I myself have often desired to shorten it, I have not done so, lest I suffer exactly what some others have experienced, who, in trying to abridge it, seemed to have drawn but a single drop of water from the Nile. ^C However, I have abridged the sixteenth book and arranged it according to the four conjugations of the moderns, and I have sent it to you, who are a lover of the Greek language and of study, so that you may more easily know which verbs are marked with the grave accent and which with the circumflex; for this is necessary for both Greeks and Latins. And having seized the opportunity, as you requested, [I have sent] also the work on the accents ^D of the nouns, which is most necessary, in an abridged form. Farewell. Regarding the barytone and...

On barytone and circumflex verbs

And this is what has been said regarding the accents of the eight parts of speech, from the Commentaries of Theodosius the grammarian; which Constantine Lascaris composed for the benefit of his students, since such a work is not only difficult in itself, but is also found with the greatest difficulty because of the calamities of our people. For with much labor expended, I barely found Theodosius’s book *On Accents* in an old codex of the Monastery of the Savior, situated on the promontory of Messina. That work, in turn, he had abridged from the great *Prosody* of the learned Herodian, whose number of twenty books he also preserved. Farewell, readers, and join in prayers for better things. In Messina of Sicily, November 25th. In the year from the Theogony ^A 1488, indiction 8. Thanks be to God.

End of the hard-to-find poem of Quintus...

Constantine Lascaris of Byzantium, on Quintus.

[alt-version omitted]

Cod. LVII, paper, in quarto, 185 leaves, of white and thick paper; written by Constantine Lascaris quite legibly, although hastily, in the year 1493; in which is contained the *Carmen* of Quintus Calaber, or Smyrnaeus, which includes what Homer omitted in the *Iliad*. At the end is read this autograph note of Constantine Lascaris: [The Greek text above:] "End of the poem of Quintus, hard to find, which Constantine Lascaris transcribed at the age of sixty-two in Messina, Sicily, from very unreliable copies. These then are to be corrected where written incorrectly, in the year from the Theogony 1496, on the 13th day of the month of June."

To each book is appended its own argument, worked out by the same Lascaris, as he himself clearly professes in his *Notice* on the poet Quintus, placed before his *Carmen*. Which arguments, indeed, as the genuine offspring of the same Lascaris, we have published—not without happy conjecture, although at the time we were unmindful of this testimony—in the codex (a) containing another copy of this poem. But just as I brought them forth willingly there, so also do I judge that the *Notice* on Quintus, which was missing from that place, should be brought forth here, since it remains ^C unpublished alongside them, and because, on account of the rare, or rather, the non-existent, abundant accounts of ancient writers concerning this author, it will not be unwelcome to those curious about the amenities of literature. It is of this sort:

Constantine Lascaris of Byzantium, on Quintus

(2) *Theogonia*, an ambiguous word, as from the verb *gignomai*, "I am born" or "I am produced," it is rendered variously in the Latin tongue; by some indeed as the *Incarnation* of God, by others as *Nativity* or *Birth*; and indeed, even by one and the same author [it is rendered] in two ways. Thus P. de Montfaucon in *Palæogr. Græcæ*, page 88, interprets it as "from the birth of Christ"; on page 91, "in the year of the Incarnation." Thus Lascaris himself, in the end of his book, translates the Latin interpreter into the same formula, "from the birth of God"; and the same person, in his little work *On Subscript Vowels*, renders it "from the Incarnation of God." Therefore, with these things noted, when I hesitated at the crossroads, doubtful which path to choose, the interpretation "from the Nativity of the Lord, or of Christ," which I have used until now, seemed more potent, and in the future, unless some stronger reason intervenes, I shall use it. Moreover, who would not marvel that nothing was noted by that most expert scholar of Paleography...

(3) ...the discourse of which falls, a most ample *Catalog* of whose Greek Mss. regarding sacred and ecclesiastical [matters] is brought forward by Ant. Possevinus at the end of volume II of his *Apparatus sacer*. That *Catalog*, however, was finished by Antonio Francisco by the command of Pope Pius IV in Messina in the year 1565, in the month of August, with Joanne de la Cerda as viceroy of Sicily, to whom this matter was also entrusted by the same supreme Pontiff, as the same Possevinus testifies.

(a) These arguments you will read after the *Notice*, taken from codex 28.

Arguments for the Fifth Book Prefixing Constantinus Lascaris

^A concerning him, as far as I know, nothing has been written in the Suda, nor have I heard anything from any of the living. Very many of the commentators on Homer make mention of him, as a kind of supplement or corollary. It is, however, conjecturable that he was a Smyrniote, from these lines of his written in the twelfth book of his poem, in which he invokes the Muses from Smyrna, speaking thus in his catalogue of heroes:

Now tell me, Muses, who are eager to know each one Those who have boarded the wide-bellied ship [somewhere]. For you have filled my breast with every kind of verse, Before the down had yet appeared upon my cheeks, While I was grazing choice sheep through the fields of Smyrna, Three times as far from my sheepfolds as the Hermus, ^C As far as the shout of a man can reach; Near the shrine of Artemis, where there is a wider garden, On a hill neither too low nor very high.

And his very name, since it is Italian, shows that he did not live in ancient times, but in those when the Romans were masters of the Greeks, and when they also used Roman names to flatter those in power; for the name *Quintus*, which we corruptly call *Keitos*, signifies "fifth" in the Roman tongue. Furthermore, whoever he was, he was an excellent poet and the greatest imitator of Homer, drawing everything from him: all poetic imitation, diction, phrasing, comparisons, descriptions, maxims, and other things that prove a perfect poet. Being most studious of Homer, he wished to compose in Homeric style what had been omitted by Homer in the *Iliad*. For where there is the end for him—the funeral of Hector—for this man there is the beginning: the arrival of Penthesilea, who, being an Amazon and a virago, came to the aid of Troy with many other Amazons and a multitude of men. Having spurred on the Trojans to war and having resisted much and fought manfully, she was easily killed, as a woman, by Achilles, and very many with her. Then also the death of that prattler Thersites at the hands of Achilles occurred; and on account of him, the contention and reconciliation of Achilles and Diomedes. Afterwards, he carefully relates the arrival and death of Memnon at the hands of Achilles, the destruction of Antilochus, the wounding of Achilles himself by an unseen arrow from Apollo, the death of Ajax, of Paris, and all other things in order, and the very storming of Ilium, which he has made the end of his poem. The subject matter, therefore, is ancient, noble, and heroic; if anything fabulous is mixed in, that too pertains to poetry, for myth is the second foundation, the end of which is pleasure and the gratification of the mind of those who are recent. The meter, however, is heroic, easily adapted to the proper emotions, and worthy of Homer, just like the other parts. I found no inscription in the book from which I transcribed this; and the number of books is clear, for there are fourteen. Since our ancestors, I know not how, neglected to record such a man, he has finally been discovered in our own time.

^A And it has been saved and disseminated by the all-good and truly wise man, the restorer of antiquity, Bessarion of Nicaea, the greatest cardinal who lived in our time, who, while restoring many other things, also discovered this poem in the church of Saint Nicholas of the Casulans, which is situated outside the city of Otranto. We must strive with all our might to acquire it, read it, and share it with those who wish to have it, so that, once it has become common knowledge, it may never again be lost; for it is not right that what was composed with great labor by others should be plunged into the abyss of oblivion through neglect or envy. These things, therefore, must be read and shared for the sake of the many necessary reasons. For what would we gain by not sharing out of envy those things judged to be excellent, especially in these most unfortunate times in which there is a scarcity of everything? ^B When I myself, in my wandering travels, arrived in Milan and had taught our own materials, having acquired this work with difficulty—along with many other things—I copied it out, shared it, and explained it; and I believe that other lovers of humanity and wisdom would have done the same. As the book was found entirely bare of notes, I myself composed the summaries of the books and, as far as I was able, corrected it. Farewell, readers, and if anything has been written less than perfectly, make it better.

SUMMARIES OF THE FIFTH BOOK PREFIXED BY CONSTANTINE LASCARIS

SUMMARY OF BOOK I.

SUMMARY OF BOOK II.

σῶμα. πολυτελῶς ἔθαψαν τὰ μάλιστα λυπηθέντες· ^A καὶ πάλιν ἐγκλεισθέντες ἀπέβαλον καὶ τὰς ἐλπίδας.

ARGUMENTUM LIB. III.

Ἐν τῷ τρίτῳ διαλαμβάνει ὁ ποιητὴς πῶς οἱ Ἕλληνες, λαβόντες τὸ σῶμα τοῦ ᾿Αντιλόχου, θάψαντες πολυτελῶς τὰ μάλιστα ἤλγησαν, καὶ αὐτὸς Ἀχιλλεύς, ὅθεν καὶ θυμωθεὶς ἐξῄει ἐς πόλεμον καὶ πολλοὺς ἀπέκτεινε, τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς ἀπέκλεισεν ἐν τῇ πόλει· ὁ δὲ ᾿Απόλλων ἐλεήσας τοὺς Τρῶας ἠπείλησε τῷ Ἀχιλλεῖ, καὶ μὴ ὑπακούσαντα ἔτρωσεν ἀδήλως ὀϊστῷ· καὶ πεσόντα ἔδραμον οἱ Τρῶες ἁρπάσαι τὸ σῶμα ἵνα ἀτιμάσωσιν. Οἱ δὲ Ἕλληνες οὐκ ἠμέλησαν, ἀλλὰ πάσῃ σπουδῇ χρησάμενοι μέγιστον πόλεμον περὶ τὸν νεκρὸν συνεστήσαντο, καὶ μάλιστα ὁ Τελαμώνιος Αἴας, ἀνδρειότατος ὢν καὶ ἀνεψιός, ὃς πολλοὺς μὲν τῶν Τρώων ἀπέκτεινε καὶ Γλαῦκον δέ, ἔτρωσε δὲ Αἰνείαν καὶ Πάριν· ὅ τε Ὀδυσσεὺς σὺν αὐτῷ πολλὰ κατώρθωσε. Καὶ ἀπελάσαντες τοὺς Βαρβάρους, εἰς τὰς ναῦς ἐκόμισαν τὸ σῶμα καὶ κηδεύσαντες ἔθαψαν, ὡς εἴθιστο. Θρήνους δὲ διαφόρων περιέχει· Αἴαντος, Ἀγαμέμνονος, Φοίνικος, πάντων τῶν Ἑλλήνων, Βρισηΐδος, γυναικῶν αἰχμαλωτίδων, Θέτιδος τῆς μητρός, Μουσῶν, Νηρείδων, Ἀνέμων, καὶ τέλος ταφὴν ἔνδοξον παρὰ τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον.

ARGUMENT OF BOOK IV.

Ἐν τῷ τετάρτῳ διαλαμβάνει ὁ ποιητὴς καὶ ὅτι καὶ οἱ Τρῶες ἐθρήνησαν Γλαῦκον τὸν Ἱππολόχου, ἄνδρα γενόμενον ἀγαθὸν τὰ πολεμικά, καὶ ὅσον οἱ Ἕλληνες ἤλγουν, τόσον οἱ Τρῶες ἔχαιρον ἐπὶ τῷ τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως θανάτῳ νομίσαντες ἀπηλλάχθαι πραγμάτων, καὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἀπράκτους ἀπιέναι· λόγους τε τῆς Ἥρας πρὸς Δία καὶ σιωπὴν τοῦ Διὸς καὶ βουλήν. Σύνεδρόν τε τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ δημηγορίας τῶν πρώτων, παρουσίαν τε τῆς μητρὸς Θέτιδος καὶ ἐπαίνους αὐτῆς καὶ τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως, ἀγῶνας τε παντοίους καὶ ἆθλα διάφορα, ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἔστιν εἰδέναι καὶ τὰ τῶν ἀθλητῶν ὀνόματα καὶ τὰ τῶν ἄθλων.

ARGUMENT OF BOOK V.

Ἐν τῷ ε΄ βιβλίῳ διηγεῖται ὁ ποιητὴς ὅτι ἡ Θέτις ἐλθοῦσα καὶ δημηγορήσασα προέθηκεν ἆθλον τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως, ἃ θαυμαστῶς ἐκφράζει ὁ ποιητὴς μακρὸν πλάσας λόγον, βουλάς τε τῶν Ἑλλήνων περιέχει, καὶ ὅτι τοῖς πρώτοις ἔδοξε μὴ ποιῆσαι κρίσιν περὶ αὐτῶν, ἀλλ' ἀφεῖναι τοῖς αἰχμαλώτοις τοῖς Τρωσὶ δικάσαι· ἀντιλογίαι τε Αἴαντος καὶ Ὀδυσσέως, μεθ' ἃς κρινάντων τῶν Τρώων τὸν Ὀδυσσέα τὰ ὅπλα λαβεῖν, ὁ Αἴας τὰ μάλιστα ἀλγῶν ἐφάνη· καὶ μανεὶς ἐνέπεσε τοῖς ζώοις, δοκῶν ἀνθρώπους κτείνειν· ὕστερόν τε ἐννοήσας ὃ κακὸν εἶχεν ἑαυτὸν ἀπέκτεινε ξίφει Ἑκτορέῳ· δι' ὃ Ἕλληνες ἀλγῆσαι ἔδοξαν καὶ αὐτὸς Ὀδυσσεύς. Παρεισάγονται δὲ θρηνοῦντες Τεύκρος ὁ ἀδελφὸς, Τέκμησα παλλακίς, καὶ πάντες οἱ οἰκεῖοι· Νέστωρ τε παρηγορήσας καὶ παρακινήσας πάντας εἰς ταφήν· καὶ οὕτω πυρκαϊὰν ποιήσαντες ἔκαυσαν καὶ ἔθαψαν μεγαλοπρεπῶς.

ARGUMENT BOOK VI.

Ἐν τῷ ἕκτῳ βιβλίῳ διηγεῖται ὁ ποιητὴς ὅτι ἀποθανόντος τοῦ Αἴαντος δημηγορίαι τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐγένοντο διάφοροι, Μενελάου παρακινοῦντος τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἀπράκτους ἀπιέναι, τοῦ Διομήδους ἐπιπλήττοντος, τοῦ Κάλχαντος παραινούντος πέμψαι δὲ Ὀδυσσέα καὶ Διομήδη. Ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ δὲ ἦλθεν πρὸς Νεοπτόλεμον τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως. Ἔπεμψαν Εὐρύπυλος ἐκ Μυσίας, ^B ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Τηλέφου, ἀνὴρ τῶν πολεμικῶν ἔμπειρος, πολλὰ ἀνδραγαθήσας καὶ πολλοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀποκτείνας.

ARGUMENT OF BOOK VII.

Ἐν τῷ ἑβδόμῳ διαλαμβάνει ὁ ποιητὴς πῶς οἱ Ἕλληνες ἔθαψαν τὸν Μαχάονα καὶ Νιρέα ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ μνήματι, καὶ ὅτι ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ Ποδαλείριος τοσοῦτον ἤλγησεν ὅτι ἄπιστος καὶ ἄποτος ἔκειτο κλαίων, βουλόμενος ἑαυτὸν ἀποκτεῖναι τῇ λύπῃ· καὶ ὅτι ἐλθὼν ὁ Νέστωρ παρεμυθήσατο πολλὰ καὶ ἄξια εἰπών, καὶ ὅτι πόλεμος ἐγένετο τοῖς Ἀχαιοῖς καὶ Τρωσὶ τοῦ Εὐρυπύλου ἀνδραγαθήσαντος, καὶ ὅτι οἱ πρέσβεις εἰς Σκῦρον ἀφίκοντο, ὅσα τε εἶπον Νεοπτολέμῳ, καὶ ἤκουσαν θρήνους τε τῆς μητρὸς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων, καὶ ὅτι τάχιστα εἰς Ἴλιον ἧκον, εὑρόντες τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐν μεγίστῳ ἀγῶνι. Ἐπαινεῖ δὲ καὶ τὸν Νεοπτόλεμον ὃν ἀσμένως πάντες εἶδον καὶ ἐτίμησαν, καὶ δῶρα πολυτελῆ ἐδωρήσαντο, ἐπὶ δεῖπνον καλέσαντες, καὶ ὅσα οἷόν τε ἰδεῖν τῷ ἀναγινώσκοντι.

ARGUMENT OF BOOK VIII.

Ἐν τούτῳ ὀγδόῳ ὄντι ὁ ποιητὴς διαλαμβάνει ὅτι ἠοῦς γενομένης ἀνέστησαν οἱ Τρῶες καὶ οἱ Ἕλληνες, ὁπλίσαντες ἑαυτοὺς ἐς πόλεμον, καὶ τοὺς μὲν Ἕλληνας παραθαῤῥύνας ὁ Νεοπτόλεμος καὶ αὐτοὺς Εὐρύπυλος ὁ Τηλέφου πολλὰ καραδοκήσας, καὶ ὅτι τοὺς Μυρμιδόνας πολλὰ νουθετήσας, τοὺς δὲ Τρῶας Νεοπτόλεμος πολλοὺς ἀπέκτεινεν ἀνδρείως τῶν Τρώων καὶ ἄλλοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων, καὶ ὅτι τελευτῶν ὥρμησεν ὁ Νεοπτόλεμος κατὰ τοῦ Εὐρυπύλου, καὶ λόγων πρῶτον ῥηθέντων ἀπέκτανε τὸν Εὐρύπυλον, καὶ νίκην μεγίστην ἐποίησε κατὰ τῶν Τρώων, οὓς ἐλεήσας ὁ Ἄρης, ἀπ' Ὀλύμπου κατῆλθε βοηθήσων. Ἡ δὲ Ἀθηνᾶ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐβοήθει, οὓς ὁ Ζεὺς ἐφόβησε κεραυνοῖς, ^C ὁμοίως καὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας· οἱ δὲ Τρῶες νενικημένοι ἐκλείσθησαν, φυλακὰς πόλεως ποιήσαντες.

ARGUMENT OF BOOK IX.

Ἐν τούτῳ ἐννάτῳ ὄντι διαλαμβάνει ὅτι ἡμέρας γενομένης οἱ Ἕλληνες ἀνέστησαν τὸ Ἴλιον ὁρῶντες, ὁ δὲ Ἀντήνωρ δεδιὼς εὔξατο τῷ Διὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως. Καὶ ὅτι οἱ Τρῶες ἔπεμψαν πρὸς Ἀγαμέμνονα δοῦναι τοὺς νεκρούς, οὓς ἔθαψαν δακρύσαντες. Ἀντόν τε Εὐρύπυλον θρηνήσαντες ἐταρίχευσαν· αὐτός τε ὁ Νεοπτόλεμος ἀπιὼν εἰς τὸν τοῦ πατρὸς τάφον μετὰ Φοίνικος καὶ ἄλλων ἐθρήνησε καὶ προσηύξατο, καὶ οὕτως ὁ ἥλιος ἔδυσε. Τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ δὲ συνήχθησαν πάντες κατὰ τῶν Τρώων ἐγκεκλεισμένων· ὁ δὲ Δηίφοβος θαρρήσας παρῄνεσε τὸν λαὸν ἐπὶ πόλεμον ἐξιέναι καὶ μὴ φοβεῖσθαι. Ἐξῄεσαν δέ, καὶ πολλοὶ

πολλοὶ ἀπέθανον. Ὁ δὲ Δηίφοβος ἠνδραγάθησε, καὶ εἰ μὴ ^A Κάλχας μάντις ὤν, ἀπὸ τέχνης εἰδὼς τὸ μέλλον, πρὸ Ἀπόλλων ἐρύσατο, ἀπεκτάνθη ἂν ὑπὸ Νεοπτολέμου. Ἄλλοι δὲ εἰς φυγὴν ἐτράποντο, καὶ νίκη τῶν Ἑλλήνων εἰ μὴ Ἀπόλλων ἐφόβησεν· ἔπεμψαν δὲ οἱ Ἀτρεῖδαι Διομήδη καὶ Ὀδυσσέα εἰς Λῆμνον, ἐπικαλεσόμενοι τὸν Φιλοκτήτην ἐκεῖ ὄντα καὶ ἕλκει μοχθίζοντα. Ἦλθε δὲ καὶ ὁ Φιλοκτήτης, ἀσμένως δεχθεὶς ὑπὸ τούτων, καὶ ἰαθεὶς παρὰ τοῦ Ποδαλειρίονος.

ARGUMENT OF BOOK X.

ARGUMENT BOOK XI.

ARGUMENT OF BOOK XII.

ARGUMENT BOOK XIII.

ARGUMENT OF BOOK XIV.

CONSTANTINE LASCARIS: BOOK ON THE POET

In which the nature and origin of poetry are briefly investigated, and its various kinds are indicated.

Since our discourse now falls upon the poet and the principles of this ^A science, a few things must be prefaced regarding the name itself for the benefit of our audience. Therefore, the poet is, according to the ancients, the first philosopher, and poetry is the first philosophy, revealing to us from youth the standard of living, and sweetly instructing us in morals, passions, and actions—accomplished not merely for the sake of recreation, as Eratosthenes says, but for instruction combined with recreation. Or, according to Strabo, the poet is a man who is good and exclusively wise, and no one can become an excellent poet unless he has first become a good man. Furthermore, the poet is an artificer of the primary metrical composition, and poetry itself is the first preparation, beginning, and source of eloquence and rhetoric; or, according to the opinion of Plutarch, poetry is an imitative art and a faculty corresponding to painting, whence comes that saying that painting is a speaking poetry, and poetry a silent painting. Or, the poet is an imitator of nature, and poetry is the imitation of nature itself. Indeed, it had its beginning among the Greeks with Cadmus son of Agenor, and the other Phoenicians who, coming to Boeotia, inhabited seven-gated Thebes. ^B And at first, indeed, priests and seers professed it, whence oracles and epigrams were then very much in use. The first, therefore, of the Greek poets and a wise man was Musaeus the Eleusinian, taught by the Phoenicians, who expressed the Theogony and the sphere in verses. The second was Linus of Thebes, who set forth the cosmogony, the course of the sun and moon, and the generations of animals and fruits. The third ^C was Orpheus the Thracian, a pupil of Linus, who wrote many poems filled with much wisdom. It is possible, therefore, to find these three first wise men to be poets, the leaders of philosophy among the Greeks, as Diogenes Laertius says. Moreover, they arranged everything in meter and rhythm, with reason as their guide. For philosophy is an imitation of God as far as human powers allow, and since God did everything in meter and rhythm, it seemed necessary to them, as philosophers and imitators of God, to employ a similar mode and form. But their successors afterwards, dissolving the meter, made prose, falling from the sublimity of poetry as if from a horse. These, therefore, were the first wise men of Greece, from whom came most others: Melampus, ^D Daedalus, Apollo, Asclepius, Chairemon, Heracles, Nauplius, Palamedes, and many of the Centaurs and Lapiths, and the Argonauts, and those who fought twice at Thebes and Ilium. After them, many men became more poetic: Syagrus, Homer,

Hesiod, and others throughout the ages. ^A This name of "poet," being a general term, contains within itself many species. It is divided into the comic, tragic, satyric, dithyrambic, hymn-writer, song-writer, epigrammatist, lyric, monodic poet, and many other species, whose natures and ends are entirely different. There are four marks of the poet properly and pre-eminently so called: ancient, or noble history, the end of which is truth; allegorical fable, the end of which is the pleasure and amusement of the young; a specific diction, that is, one noble and skillfully composed of idioms; and the heroic meter with its species and passions. He who does not use these, is not to be called a poet. Poets pre-eminently so called are these: Homer, Hesiod, Antimachus, Panyasis, Pisander; the versifiers, however, are countless. The poetic discourse ^B is divided into three: into the grand, the middle, and the lean [style]. The natural philosophers employed the grand style, and subsequently the heroic poets, as it is powerful and exhibits both the phrasing and the subject matter in the actions of heroes; the middle style was used by those who wrote georgics and other such things; and the lean style by those [who wrote] bucolics and amatory works. Often, however, it turns out that poets have employed all three, according to the characters introduced and the material, imitating the nature of men.

CONSTANTINE LASCARIS

EPISTLE TO HIS DISCIPLES

Prefixed to the treatise on tropes and figures.

Constantine Lascaris to his own disciples, greetings. Since the knowledge of tropes and ^C figures brings no small usefulness to the poetry of Homer and of all poets, I thought it necessary, having collected as much as has been said about them by the wise Plutarch, to share it with you and bestow it upon others. I shall use, for the most part, examples from the poet, which Plutarch himself, not without reason, used. For the poet, endowed with a divine nature, became not only the beginning and source of all the sciences, but also their inventor; from whom those who came after, drawing, won approval among all. These things you too must read and remember, by which you may most easily understand the works of others. Farewell.

(1) The treatise *On Poetic Tropes and Figures* is immediately subjoined, the beginning of which is: "An ornate discourse, loving the variation of the usual..." and the end is:

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE LASCARIS TO GEORGE

^A Constantinus Lascaris to Georgios, wishing him well and, as far as reason chooses, to do what is right: to honor parents, to respect brothers, fatherland, and friends, and to behave towards them accordingly; but that whatever is contrary to what is right—to despise parents, to disregard brothers, kindred, or friends, to betray the fatherland, and suchlike—is not what is right. Neither are those things contrary to what is right which neither reason chooses to do nor forbids, such as picking up a straw, holding a pen, and similar things. And as for the countless things called "duties" without circumstances, that is, without external accidents, they are such as taking care of one's health, one's senses, and similar matters; but those that are incidental are such as injuring oneself or casting away one's possessions. Furthermore, some duties always befit us, such as learning, asking, answering, conversing, walking; others do not always do so, such as their opposites. ^B Furthermore, some duties are perfect, such as right actions, which, being correct, are perfect; others are intermediate, or common, for which a reason can be given as to why they were done. And all things mentioned in practical philosophy that are ethical, economic, and political are duties; many of the ancients wrote about these, starting with Zeno of Citium, who was the first to give the name "duty" (kathēkon). Cleanthes likewise, Sphaerus of the Bosphorus, Panaetius the Rhodian, and others, from whom Cicero, the greatest orator of the Latins, drawing his material and transferring it into his own language and arranging it in his own manner, bestowed a most beneficial work upon the Latins; reading and hearing this publicly, they constantly discuss these "offices" (officia). We, however, by some bad luck, together with other things, have lost those writings concerning duties.

Be well, and if you have need of anything else, write with confidence. ^C

CONSTANTINI LASCARIS

Fourteen Familiar Letters

Constantine to John Parios, greetings. ^B It seems, from what you wrote, that you have long been waiting for me and are eager to hear my news; you know that one must speak to those who know everything. I sit here, a burden upon the earth, lamenting, regarding my stay here as slavery and my departure from here as a common misfortune; for what should I do, or whither should I go, being weak and wretched in such a most grievous time? A time in which the fatherland is enslaved to the foulest Barbarians, and all of Greece—with neither kingdom nor constitution left to us—is entirely enslaved and filled with fear and danger. If I were alone, I would not hesitate to see even the pillars of Hercules; but now, being a slave for the sake of my own kin, I must bear everything and cling to whatever I can, as people say of the octopus in wintertime, choosing the lesser of two evils when placed between them. For when I think about the present horrors, and the beastliness here, I yearn not only for Milan and the cities there, but for the British Isles—and, if you wish, for the Isles of the Blessed. But when, on the other hand, I consider the excessive thoughtlessness of the tyrants and that unbearable, unpaid pedagogical labor, I repent, and would rather choose the stone-quarries of Philoxenus than to be with such tyrants. For that man could not bear serving a philosopher and a potentate, but fled and went to Tarentum. But I, living in the tent of malicious men, how could I be able to coexist with them? Rome—the new Babylon and nurse of all evil—I do not even think worthy to behold; and I flee from thankless Naples, having heard of it; for I have had experience. And if I, having suffered something in my ignorance, have learned that sufferings are lessons for mankind, I would be most foolish to knot the asphodel again; for there is neither reward from those who listen nor from those in power. They show pity to the lame and blind and give to them; but they hate the wise and drive them away; they pay the lawyers and gain from them; they begrudgingly look after the doctors when they are sick; but they do not even deem the philosophers worthy of being seen; and they mock poets and orators as if they were mad. And so, to speak thus, the palaces are full of sycophants and buffoons; and at the doors of the powerful it is possible to see licentious men prospering. But for Greek learning, there is no account; rather, Homer is driven away from everywhere; Demosthenes and Plato are despised; and everywhere there is tyranny, and a lack of freedom far greater than that of Sisyphus; and they would do anything rather than hire a Greek. And if you do not believe me, let the test of human experience persuade you. ^A For the stinginess of the tyrants drove Theodore, who had reached the pinnacle of all wisdom, to Calabria, and in Polycastrum—alas!—forced him to die ignobly; and Andronicus, son of Callistus, to the British Isles, where he died destitute of friends; and Frangulis—a wise man, though I know not where in Italy; and Demetrius to return to his homeland, serving the Barbarians. And I omit my wise instructor, John Argyropoulos, living in poverty in the midst of Rome and selling his own books day by day. That Rome no longer exists, nor those wonderful citizens, the Romans, to whom Latin and Greek learning once mattered. Naples is no longer the colony of the Chalcidians and Athenians, the gymnasium of Greek learning, to which the Romans used to hasten when they came. Everything has vanished and been transformed; reflecting on these and such things I sit, looking out toward the wine-dark sea, and your dear Scylla and Charybdis, and this most dangerous strait, grieving at having to remain, weeping at not being able to sail, and at a loss as to what I ought to do or whither on earth I should go. May God alone, as you poets say, snatch me up and carry me elsewhere, or—what is dreadful to others—may He bring this upon me as something pleasant, so that, having been delivered from the myriad horrors here, we might pass into that painless life. But you, being young and a lover of life, may you thrive as much as the sweet-spoken Nestor, of whose tongue you partook long ago; and may you be diligent in sacred philosophy, the end of which is to become like to God as far as is possible for man. Farewell, and do not expect us.

To brother John. If I did not previously happen to hear your news, you have nevertheless shown yourself to be a trustworthy witness of these things. For to write so beautifully, while preparing to receive a stranger who is absent and longs for you, is, I think, a sign of no small education and virtue; using these things perfectly, you draw all toward yourself just as the magnet draws iron. And now you have won beforehand, and I am defeated; but as there are two of us, both friends, I share in no less a way in the victory even being the defeated party; for the things of friends are common, on account of virtue. And since you, being such a person, love, and the one loved is a friend to the one who loves—and among those who know how to love in return—let us establish a friendship that is chosen for its own sake, which the wise have called the only, first, and best friendship, one that comes into being on account of virtue. For its establishment, we use the eyes of the soul and letters. For...

that which is firmly fixed for the many out of habit continues; for it always puts forward utility, and is more quickly dissolved, being a sort of flattery. But the friendship ^A which chooses these customs and characters, practices and affairs—which is harmed in no way by this absence, just as it does not compete with that presence—trust in these, therefore, and not in the words of someone or other, considering me to be the same toward you as you are toward me. For a friend is another self; use my things as your own, for commonality and equality are the property of true friendship. And know that this letter partakes so much of Hellenic style that it seems to be of Hermes and the Muses. Yet you will not persuade us, even if you were to persuade us, to take hold of your property! But if it is necessary to examine this even more carefully, we shall deliberate when we meet in person; for as they say, "Two come together." Farewell.

To the same. The monastic life teaches those who belong to it complete gentleness, commanding them to limit their own affairs as much as possible, and to extol those of others. But the ethical life chooses the middle course, in which virtue—when one rejects one of the extremes as excessive and another as deficient—comes to light. You, therefore, having learned to use the first with others, I would wish you to use the second with me, and not to hang my things so far below being praised that you make them appear boastful, nor to disparage your own things so much to everyone as to seem to be choosing a non-entity over what exists. One must, therefore, keep to the middle, holding such an opinion about each as the law of friendship demands; for otherwise, this would be, as they say, "the rivers flowing backward." Farewell, and read the solutions to your questions; and if others should occur to you, do not hesitate to write.

To Andronicus Callistus. Your letter was charming in all other respects; but the most charming thing of all is your recovery from illness, of which I think the medicine itself—your homeland, your parents, and your friends—and liberty, than which nothing is better or sweeter, have been the cause. Rejoice, therefore, living freely among your own; having been released from myriad needs, and claim for yourself the pursuit of letters, with which you will adorn both yourself and others. Farewell.

To Carolus. You have not only forgotten us and our letters since you departed from here, but from the very day you knew you were about to leave. And this is attested by the fact that you have neither written to us nor been diligent about the letters of both of us. Of what sort of person ^B would this be, if not one who is careless about noble things, but diligent about trifles—to which he is so addicted that he has neglected everything, both books and teachers? Farewell, and send the book as quickly as possible.

To Georgius Placentinus. Your letter was brought to me, through which, even though you are absent, you have shown your goodwill toward me, imitating the storks, as if you were present, and promising to do everything; for which I feel as much gratitude to you as one could feel ^C toward one who is diligent concerning sacred philosophy—which the ancients, considering it the one supreme good, not without reason called the "art of arts" and the "science of sciences"—and furthermore, an assimilation to God as far as is possible for a human. For through it, having gained knowledge of all things and having disciplined themselves, men have appeared divine. I therefore exhort you to partake of it with all your strength, for the sake of which you have learned other things. For just as it is useful to see many cities, but best to inhabit the most beautiful one, so after other things it is necessary to know this one, so that you do not suffer what Bion the philosopher said. For he declared that those who had learned all other things but had neglected philosophy suffered the same fate as the suitors of Penelope: those who were unable to approach her mingled with her handmaids. One must strive and do what is possible, at the same time to possess the queen ^D while having the servants, the end of which—the knowledge of divine and human affairs—the wise Plato stated. Farewell, and send me the book of Diogenes.

To Carolus. To grow pale from excessive study is harmful to the body, but beneficial to the soul and a cause of greatest praise. This, even the Athenians, since they demonstrated it as a sign of the greatest zeal, all approved; and the sophist Libanius, seeing Dositheus having suffered this, admired him, and rejoiced with his master. But for you to have suffered this not from the study of letters, but from indulgence or boundless wantonness—not only is this not to be praised, but it must be greatly rebuked; for in word you delight in wisdom, but in deed you delight in debauchery and disorder in living. For we do not live, Carolus, so that we may devour; for that would be the happiness of Sardanapalus and his like, who define happiness by the belly. But we eat so that we may live, being content with moderate things, with which the mind, being pure, is nourished by knowledge. For these are the food of the soul, just as food is for the body. Therefore, I exhort you, even while absent, to hold fast to letters, and to abstain from immoderate meals, so that by fattening the prison of the soul, you do not make it not only viler, but also so weak that, along with the things of the soul, it loses the things of the body. Farewell, and send me the books.

To Theodorus Gaza. The unevenness of affairs has made me hesitant about writing, but not forgetful. For who is so foolish that he would forget the wise Theodorus, whom nature fashioned as a father of letters and a guide, and as a kind of light-bearer for two languages? Or who would not choose, having overlooked his own affairs, to spend his days with you, and to enjoy a new feast, much sweeter than ambrosia and nectar? Or what consolation would there be for us, who have long desired, and who have lost you all the more quickly upon seeing you? O wretched are we, who are prevented from being with you! But fortunate are the Calabrians, more so than when they possessed the wise Pythagoras. O happy Locris, which now boasts more than when it...

Sibyl, truthful prophetess, how did you foresee that a wise man would come to the Italiotes, and foretell it? Yet, because you were hastening toward the beginnings of your administration, you were reluctant to declare the results, on account of the misfortune of your people. Happy are those who truly feast daily; and unhappy are those who, deserving of every reproach, once reaped their harvest, but now leave it behind. They ought to have suffered all things rather than have departed in such a way. But they are blinded by their own excessive pride. Do you, however, complete what you have begun for the common good. Farewell.

To Bishop Athanasius. Many times, when I have been by myself, I have cried out against fortune, and kings, and their high priests, for allowing such an individual to associate with the boorish—and for allowing a light-bringer to be veiled in black clouds, and for not having made him the archbishop of a wonderful city, so that he himself might live worthily and others might be helped. Pondering these things and the like, I was grieved, considering Locris a Scythian wilderness. But since you have had the wise Theodore as a companion, how do you think I rejoice? And singing a palinode, I consider the cliffs among us more fortunate than the dwellings here. Truly, God snatched that man away and led him up, having made him a housemate, in whose presence one happens to be in need of nothing. Farewell.

To the same. The envoys have returned, having achieved nothing other than the spending of money. For the cardinal, in whom I placed the greatest trust, does not rejoice so much in the red hat as in the smoke of his title. He was not only unwilling to grant the two things to him, but even became angry at my daring to ask! So, having accomplished nothing, we have even made an enemy of him. Farewell.

To Bishop Gaza. ^A For sending gifts and for promising them, there is a nature that overcomes all things, which, having possessed from tender youth, you have rightly attained to where you now are. You have despised riches, but you have fallen in love with wisdom, which, according to him who said it, accompanies wealth and glory. I wished, however, for you to be mindful of more necessary things; for it is neither fitting nor easy to benefit everyone in such a time, nor am I so destitute as to be in need of being benefited, being satisfied with little. But since you win even in discourse, and deem yourself worthy to give more rather than to receive when doing kindnesses, there is the greatest thanks due to you for both the gift and the promises. And may many good things come to you from God, that you might be able to do good to all. Farewell.

To the same. After you departed from here, the administrators of the fatherland called an assembly and the great council voted not only to allow the books to be sent, but to demand back those which the master had received before. They added a decree for me, along with a price of fifty talents if I should send them. Action must be taken in another way, and not through me; for it is not right for a foreigner to tempt the wrath of those here. Farewell.

To Cardinal Bessarion. After the sage Gaza departed, I said everything and I did everything, and I begged regarding all things so that I might obtain safety to send the books. But they, having summoned those of like mind, and the great council, resolved that it was not only ^B just to allow these to be sent, but also to write that those [books] which he had previously received should be returned. But who could persuade the Messenians to change their minds? It would be yours to contrive another way; for through me, a foreigner and one without power, it is not possible. Farewell.

To the same. With difficulty and in time, we besieged the Mioukios and recovered three ounces; but as for the rest, the ruler promises them, but will not give them, being by nature one who prefers himself above others. It would be yours, in accordance with your worth, to command the ruler to add the rest, and to compel him not to do injustice where it is not right.

To Bishop Gaza. The good Peter delivered your letter to me, brief indeed, but worthy of your wisdom and of your liberality. For to know the greatest gratitude...

Concerning Adam. A Synopsis of histories by Constantine Lascaris, collected from various historians. Incipit: Adam the first-formed, from Eve, begat three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth.

A Synopsis of this kind leads from Adam, and has its end in Constantine Palaeologus, the last of the emperors of the Greeks, under whom Constantinople was captured by the Turks; the time of whose capture is related by Lascaris himself, as an eyewitness and being a captive: "And in his second year (of Constantine) Constantinople was captured most shamefully and cruelly by the godless Turks, on the twenty-ninth day of the month of May, on the third day of the week, in the early morning, in the year 6961." And he himself died along with many others. And he lamented the fall of his fatherland with these words: "And under him perished the empire of the Romans, and liberty, and nobility, and learning, and wealth, and every good thing." He adds immediately these little words: "And I myself was captured."

Immediately after these things, the same Lascaris briefly relates the fall, the line of progeny, and the various events of Demetrius and Thomas, the brothers of the same Emperor Constantine, despots of the Peloponnese. A portion of whose history, since it perhaps does not appear elsewhere, I have considered should be appended in this place.

^A Afterward, Trebizond was captured, and Triballis, and the entire Peloponnese, while Demetrius and Thomas were despots there among the other brothers. Demetrius, having been captured, was led away to Hadrianopolis together with his wife and daughter, who died before him; he himself obtained a military stipend from the Turk, Mahomet. Thomas, the last brother, having set out in flight with his wife and children, came to Corfu; and thence to Rome under Pope Pius, while Cardinal Bessarion and Isidore, the bishop of Russia, were still alive. He lived for some years in Rome, and there he passed away; and his second daughter was married to the Emperor of Russia, while the Roman Church supported his two sons. The younger, Manuel, fled and betook himself to Constantinople to the Turk, the destroyer of the Roman race; and there he lived. But the elder, Andrew, wandered now in Rome, now elsewhere, like a vagabond in our time, in the year 6909 (A.D. 1401). His first daughter happened, before the capture (of the city), to marry the despot of Serbia; upon whose death, she was left a widow with two daughters; of whom the first was married by the despot of the island of Santa Maura, by whom she bore a son, Don Carlo, and three most beautiful and holy daughters: Remusia, Leonora, and Maria; the second (was married) to the son of Scerer. ^B

ANOTHER BRIEF NOTICE OF THE SAME AUTHORS, CONCERNING THE EMPERORS OF CONSTANTINOPLE

From Theodore Lascaris to Constantine III and the capture of the city.

Theodore Lascaris, a strenuous man. John Ducas Vatatzes. Theodore Lascaris, son of John. Michael Palæologus the Great, who expelled the Latins from the City. Andronicus his son. Michael Palæologus the Third. Cantacuzenus Palæologus. Andronicus Palæologus. Manuel his son, in whose time there existed five sons: the first, John, who reigned and perished, consumed by illness; Theodore, who died at Selymbria; Constantine, who after John attained the last empire, during whose reign the city was captured by the impious Turks, and he himself was made a captive; Demetrius, who died at Hadrianopolis after the capture of the Peloponnese, in which Thomas, the last, fleeing with his wife and children, came to Rome; and there he died, leaving two sons and one daughter, who married the Emperor of Russia. As for the sons, the first lived in Rome, the other, fleeing to the Turks, departed in my time. ^{C D}

NOTICE OF THE SUCCESSORS OF THE EMPEROR BASIL up to the capture of the city.

Leo his son, the Philosopher, 26 years, 38 months. After him Leo, his son, the Philosopher, 1 year, 8 months. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, with Stephen and Constantine his brothers and brothers-in-law ^A, 15 years. Constantine his son 3 years, 3 months. Basil and Constantine, his sons, being infants, 6 months. Nicephorus Phocas 6 years. John Tzimiskes 6 years. Basil and Constantine the Porphyrogeniti 53 years less one month; and Basil indeed with his brother 50 years; but Constantine after the death of his brother 3 years. Romanus Argyropoulos 5 years, 6 months. Michael the Paphlagonian 7 years, 9 months. Michael Kalaphates, who was also blinded, 4 months, 14 days in the Sigma. Zoe and Theodora the Porphyrogeniti 4 months. Constantine Monomachus 13 years, 7 months. Theodora the Porphyrogenitus 1 year, 8 months, 20 days. Michael the Elder, from the Military, 1 year, 13 days. Isaac Komnenos 2 years, 2 months, 29 days. ^B Constantine Dukas 7 years, 6 months, 1 day. Eudokia his wife, with Michael their son, 7 months, 10 days. Romanus Diogenes together with the aforementioned Eudokia 3 years, 10 months, 21 days. Michael, son of Constantine Dukas, 6 years, 7 months. Nicephorus Botaneiates 3 years, 6 days. Alexios Komnenos 37 years, 4 days. John his son 24 years, 4 months. Manuel Porphyrogenitus Komnenos, his son, 37 years, 15 days. Alexios his son, the Porphyrogenitus, 2 years, 2 months. Andronikos his uncle, who [was] also Komnenos, 3 years. Isaac Angelos 9 years, 7 months. Alexios Komnenos, brother of Isaac Angelos, 8 years, 6 months. Alexios, son of Isaac, 6 months. Alexios Dukas Mourtzouphlos 70 days, and immediately occurred the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in the month of April of the 7th indiction, of the year 6712; they having come and fallen upon Chalcedon, and pillaging its surroundings for one year. Theodore Laskaris, a noble man, years... John Laskaris Dukas Batatzes years... Theodore Laskaris, son of John, years... ^C Michael Palaiologos the Great, who drove the Latins from the city, years... Andronikos his son years... Michael Palaiologos the third years... Kantakouzenos years... Andronikos Palaiologos years... Manuel his son, having begotten five sons in our time, of whom the first, John the Koulos, bedridden for years, he who convened the eighth council in...

Florence, having united the Latins and the Romans, which maintained union for only a short while. The second [despot] was Theodore, the despot in Selymbria, dying before John in my time; and after him, John also died a little later, while his mother, who was a nun, was still alive. After John, Constantine the Third was called, who was despot in Mistra, and lord of half of the Peloponnese; he was not crowned, and in his second year Constantinople was captured most shamefully and cruelly by the godless Turks on the twenty-ninth of the month of May, on the third day of the week, in the year 6961; and he himself was slain with many others; and I became a captive. With him perished all the things of the Romans; and the empire, and the nobility, and letters, and wealth, and freedom itself. ^B The fourth was Demetrius, despot in Mistra, and the fifth was Thomas, despot of Patras; against whom campaigned the ungodly Mahomet, who took Demetrius prisoner along with his wife and daughter and carried them to Adrianople, where, after these things, he paid the common debt, the wife and daughter having died beforehand. Thomas he sent into exile along with all his own, who, having arrived in Rome, lived under Pope Pius; and after these things, dying, he left two sons and one daughter, whom the Emperor of Russia married. Of the sons, the younger, Manuel, because of his lack of resources, fled to the Turk, where, having met with providence, he has lived well up to the present time; the first, Andrew, having become a vagabond, wanders about many parts of Europe in the year 6973.

CONSTANTINI LASCARIS

PARENTAL POEMS

I.

Heroic pentastich on the deceased Theodore Gaza

Here lies the one who stood as the flower of wisdom, Theodore Gaza, whom Greece bore and adorned with its disciplines; And Italy had him as a light-bearer and skilled interpreter. If, however, a small city holds such a man in its tomb, Do not wonder; for ingratitude toward wisdom prevails.

II.

The same on Phanourios Gerakios of Rhodes

The youth whom Rhodes had as an exceptional ornament, Brilliant in soul and body, and of the greatest fortune, Him did bitter Orcus snatch away unexpectedly, Deserving as he was to live to the furthest reaches of old age.

III. Constantini Lascaris epigramma (funebre) in principem Hispaniae

^A Who lately flourished as a prince, the magnanimous lord of the Iberians, Over peoples, cities, and homes upon the sea; Only offspring of exalted and pious kings, And happy spouse of an august wife; Him, alas! tearful fate snatched away by a sudden blow, Him who was worthy to live the ages of Nestor the elder.

The same on Ferdinand Cugno, governor of Sicily

Here lies Ferdinand Curius, the hero, Lord of all Trinacria, equal to the gods; In figure regal, and in soul and all character, A sanctuary of virtues, and of philosophy. Him the chorus of the wise and good mortals wept, As a gentle father, as a holy ornament of the city. In this stone, alas, his mortal remains are royally entombed, But his soul has departed, ascending to the realm of the blessed.

IV. Constantini Lascaris in Georgium B. Rhalem

If lamentation were not among mortals, now it has begun; Grief and mourning, wailing and anguish. Dead, alas! is the young George Rhalis, Comely and good, and at once affectionate, Just, pious, and very friendly, Wise by nature; brave, temperate, entirely Pleasing, gentle, and ever affable. A trusty friend, indeed, and a firm companion; Agreeable to his kin, agreeable also to strangers; Obedient in all things to his father and to his race— From the brilliant blood of the monarchs of Hellas, From a father and mother most noble, Holding the first rank among the wise of the Achaean land, Adorned greatly with wealth and the glory of the highest-ranking mortals, And embellished with most numerous virtues.

^B He was like a bright star shining in the heavens. Of those from whom he was born and reared, he was the peer, Possessing body—if ever anyone did— Superior to mortals in wrestling and running, In the discus and in flying javelins, In nimble leaps and in the pancratium; Capable of bearing the spear and armor, Of taming horses and tracking beasts, Dexterous in the use of the bow and quiver, And leading hounds like another Orion; A cluster of virtues, not to say more. Yet, though he was such a flower, Bitter Hades—and before his time—did snatch him away, The most evil of evils, and the life-destroyer of all, Distressing all and devouring mortals. And now this tomb covers his body, But his soul the Creator of all holds.