Agapetus, Deacon of Constantinople

YEARS OF THE LORD DLXV. AGAPETUS CONSTANTINOPOLITANUS DIACONUS. NOTITIA.

(Galland. Vet. Patrum Biblioth. t. XI, p. lx, 253.)

I. Agapetus, of whom this discourse treats, in the inscription of his work, calls himself Deacon of the most holy Great Church of God, that is, of Saint Sophia. We find that he flourished ^A under the beginning of the reign of Justinian, specifically in the year 527. At that very time, as the great founder of the Ecclesiastical Annals notes, whom Banduri transcribed, two archimandrites of the monasteries of Agapetus flourished in Constantinople, frequent mention of whom occurs in the acts of the Council of Constantinople under Mennas; from these, we and Baronius and Fabricius judge that our Deacon should be distinguished, although Banduri does not dare to affirm this. Furthermore, it is a fact that Justinian was a student of the most learned man, Deacon Agapetus, before he assumed power: this is concluded from a Greek manuscript codex which once existed in Constantinople at the home of Constantine Barinus, inscribed thus: *The twelve books or sections of Agapetus, Deacon of the Great Church, and formerly teacher of King Justinian the Great, addressed to the same King Justinian*. It seems highly unlikely that the aforementioned archimandrites performed such a duty. ^B Possevinus reports the inscription of a codex of this kind. This inscription, perhaps, may be confirmed by those things which Agapetus himself wrote to Justinian in his admonitory work: "In our times," he says, "a time of prosperous life has been shown, which one of the ancients predicted would come; when either philosophers will reign, or kings will philosophize: for then you were deemed worthy of the kingdom by philosophizing, and then indeed, by reigning, you have not departed from philosophy." Thus, clearly, it is to be believed that the excellent teacher did not rashly address his former pupil who had been properly instructed. Wherefore the distinguished Norisius, relying on these and other documents, rightly argues against those who unjustly assailed this same Justinian as if he were an illiterate person.

II. Therefore, Deacon Agapetus wrote seventy-two Admonitory Chapters, and dedicated them to Justinian when he was recently raised to the pinnacle of empire; their acrostic, or the connected series of the first letters, produces this meaning: ^C *To our most divine and most pious King Justinian, Agapetus the least of deacons.* A monument surely worthy of ecclesiastical antiquity: "As long as Emperor Justinian lent his ear to this, he administered the empire justly and rightly in all things; but when he deviated, he brought ruin upon himself and the Roman world." These are the words of Baronius. Furthermore, concerning the value of the work, Banduri says this: "How highly the Greeks valued this small work of Agapetus, one can easily infer from the fact that it earned the name *schedē basilikē*, 'royal notes.' Its subject matter is very grave; the style is almost Attic, such as you observe in Isocrates and Gregory Nazianzen, whom the author has imitated greatly. He uses paronomasiae throughout, and strives to observe a continuous acrostic. This type of writing was not infrequent among the ancients, especially in poems." These things having been set forth, the same ^D distinguished man narrates in a few words what labor he expended in editing this writer. First, therefore, he compared the Greek text of that latest edition with two manuscript codices of the Royal Library, with the help of which he corrected the text in many places and illustrated it with brief notes; in these notes, he marked one of the cited codices with the letter A and the other with B. Furthermore, he prepared a new Latin translation, since that old one was teeming with many errors and seemed barbaric to learned men. To this Bandurian edition, therefore, we have brought our own, and we have placed beneath the text the notes of the learned man which were read at the end of the second volume of his *Oriental Empire*. However, Fabricius diligently reviewed various editions of the small work of Agapetus; yet he omitted the Lugdunum edition, which Baronius used in transcribing the same small work inserted into his *Ecclesiastical Annals*. The aforementioned Fabricius also has some things elsewhere concerning this Exposition of Agapetus, where he speaks of the edition of Camerarius.

AGAPETUS, DEACON OF CONSTANTINOPLE. ANOTHER NOTICE

^A Agapetus (1), deacon of the holy Great Church of Constantinople, [wrote] the *Exhortatory Address* to Justinian, recently created emperor in the year of Christ 527, or

Exposition of Exhortatory Chapters

Agapetus's Greek editions, which preceded the Græco-Latin edition of Banduri, revised from two royal manuscripts (2). The oldest is: *Agapetus, Deacon, Concerning the Office of a King, addressed to Emperor Justinian*, Gr. and Lat., Venice, Zacharias Calliergi, 1509, 8; a very rare book. In Latin, in the same city and year. See Pinelli, *Catalogus*, 1, no. 1110; and II, no. 3644. *Agapetus's small work, etc.*, Gr., Cologne, 1517, 4. Panzer A. T. VI, p. 378. In Adelung's *Forts.*, etc., l. c., p. 200. I suspect the year 1527 is a typographical error. Harl. Basel, in the year 1521, 8, by Jo. Froben, with the fables of Aesop and others, Hesiod, Theognis, and other gnomological writers. FABR. I do not wish to repeat here what I wrote above in vol. I, p. 644 seqq., concerning the editions of Agapetus with the fables of Aesop, to which should be added the edition: *Fables of the Phrygian Aesop with certain other small works* (no. Gabrias...

(1) There were many by this name: for instance, Agapetus, bishop of Synnada, about whom Philostorgius and Suidas write under 'Agapetus', falsely praising Eusebius instead of Philostorgius. There were two archimandrites of Constantinople by the name of Agapetus, of whom mention is made in the *Acts of the Council of Constantinople* under Mennas. Agapetus I, Pope of Rome, in the year of Christ 535, and Agapetus II, from the year 946–956; whose letters are extant. Then [there was] Agapetus, metropolitan of the island of Rhodes, whose letter for the Council of Chalcedon, written to Emperor Leo in the year of Christ 457, occurs in the *Acts of the Council of Chalcedon*, part III, c. 45. FABR. — That Agapetus, the metropolitan, also subscribed to the Council of Constantinople under Patriarch Gennadius in the year 459, in Cod. Vindob. 44. V. Lambec. *Comm.* VIII, p. 890 seq. Among the *Epistles* of Chrysostom there occur three epistles to Agapetus. V. Montfaucon, *Bibl. Coislin.*, pp. 567 and 569. Agapetus is numbered among the grammarians in Cod. Coislin. 387, according to Montfaucon, *l. c.*, p. 597. — Agapitus, however, a martyr and deacon, is in the *Roman Martyrology* on the 6th of August. V. Lambec. *Comm.* VIII, p. 260. Certain deeds of Pope Agapetus are in a codex of the Vatican Library, according to Montfaucon in *Bibl. biblioth. mss.* I, p. 101 C. — Add. Adelung's *Fortsetzung und Ergänzung zu Jöchers allgem. gelehrt. Lexicon*, tom. I, p. 289. Concerning Agapetus the Deacon see Cave, *H. L. Script. eccl.*, tom. I, p. 509; R. Ceillier, *Hist. gén. des aut. eccl.*, tom. XVI, p. 483; Hamberger, *Z. N.* III, p. 333; Saxius, *Onom.* II, 26 sq. Harl. (2) There exists also an anonymous Greek commentary, and in the same Imperial Library, according to volume IV, p. 507, ed. Kollarii — furthermore in Cod. 246 no. 9, and Cod. 247 no. 5, with the Greek commentary of a certain ancient anonymous author, subjoined individually to each of the parænetic chapters by way of exposition (vol. V, p. 244 and 465). — In Cod. 7, no. 13, likewise with an anonymous Greek *Commentary* (vol. VI, part 1, p. 73 seq.). In Cod. 97 no. 2 (vol. VII, p. 384). — In Cod. 68, written in the year 1700 in Wallachia, Agapetus's *Parænetica* with the paraphrase or commentary of Sebastian of Trebizond, written in the common Greek tongue: Kollar wrote more about that codex in *Supplementorum* book I, to Lambecius's *Commentaries*, p. 442 seq. In Munich in the Electoral Bavarian Library, Agapetus's *Admonitions*, according to the catalogue of Greek codices, p. 12. In Augsburg, twice (according to Reiser, p. 40). In Florence, in the Laurentian Medicean library, in Cod. 7, no. 20, plut. 55. — In Cod. 59, no. 26, plut. 59. In Cod. 13 no. 38, plut. 74. In Cod. 7, no. 3, plut. 86. It is also cited in the collection of sententiae. V. Bandini, *Cat. codd. Gr. Laur.* II, p. 261, 533; III, pp. 109, 298; and I, p. 253. Ibid. in the Library of St. Mary, twice, according to Montfaucon in *Diario ital.*, pp. 364 and 365. — In Venice, in the library of St. Mark, cod. 620 B (V. *Cat. codd. Gr.* p. 516). Ibid. among the Nanian codices, cod. 296, no. 11, 15th century, with a Latin version, but ending mutely. V. *Catal.* of those codices, p. 498. In Padua, in the library of St. John in Viridario, Agapetus's *Parænesis* with scholia, according to Tomasini in *Bibl. Patavinis mss.*, p. 22. — In Britain, according to the *Cat. codd. mss. Angliæ et Hibern.*, in Cod. Barocci. In Paris, in the public library in five codices, according to the *Catal. codd. Paris.* vol. II, in these in Cod. 2553, there is added an anonymous grammatical explanation, and subjoined is the Latin interpretation of another anonymous author, and in Cod. 2762 no. 10, scholia have been added, hitherto unpublished. According to Montfaucon, *Bibl. bibl. mss.* in Rome in the Vatican Library I, p. 6 A; p. 122 C, p. 133 D. HARL.

^A thirty-three Greek fables, from the exercises on the fable by Aphthonius, then those on the ants and the cicadas, on the fable from the images of Philostratus, the *Batrachomyomachia* of Homer, the *Hero and Leander* of Musaeus, the *On the Duties of a King* by Agapetus, the *Oath* of Hippocrates, and the *Galeomyomachia*, a Greek tragedy. Basel, by Nic. Bryling, 1553, 12mo, in Greek. HARL.

In the *Gnomonical Booklet* by Joach. Camerarius, in Greek, pp. 87-108. But the Latin version by Camerarius is also appended at the end of the book, pp. 227-251. Leipzig, 8vo, without date of the year (3). Leyden, 1592, 8vo, by Franciscus Raphelengius. Cologne, 1604, 8vo; 1638, 8vo. FABR. ^B In the book: *Gymnasium...* (that is, 1620), 8vo; that it was printed in the same year in Cöthen, the illustrious Degen shows in *Nachtrag*, p. 13 seq. HARL.

— *Graeco-Latinae.* Regarding the first Venetian edition of 1509, I have already spoken a little before; but more fully regarding the Basel edition of 1518, 8vo, above in Vol. I, p. 644 seq. Because the preface was written on the Nones of December 1517, I judge that it came to pass that in the catalogue of Christius II, p. 250, and from it in Panzer’s *A. T.* VI, page 202, and elsewhere, that edition was attributed to the year 1517. — In other editions with Aesop etc., which I have praised in Vol. I, from which Fabricius’s *Notitia* here can be enriched, add Basel 1554, 8vo, in Greek and Latin. — Isocrates’ *Paraenesis to Demonicus*. His *Precepts by which a prince might emerge better*. Agapetus’s *Exhortatory Sermon to the Emperor Justinian* on the same matter. Added to these by way of an appendix are some epigrams of illustrious Greeks ^C on the various manner of human life, translated by the jurist Ottmar Luscinius. At the end: Printed at Augsburg by Simpertus Rufl, at the expense of D. Sigismund Grimm, 1523, 8vo. See Zapf, *Augsburgs Buchdruck. Geschichte*, part II, page 166. HARL.

With the fables of Aesop and others, *Batrachomyomachia*, *Galeomyomachia*, the *Amours of Hero and Leander* of Musaeus, and the *Oath* of Hippocrates, Basel 1545, 8vo; Paris 1549, 12mo; Basel 1574, 12mo [Antwerp from the office of Christoph. Plantin, 1567, 12mo. See above, Vol. I, p. 646]; and Venice, by Antonius Bartoli, 1709, 8vo. Among the writings of the ancient Greek theologians, edited together by Conrad Gesner at Zurich, 1559, folio. From the edition of Jo. Ranftius, Wittenberg 1562, 8vo. In the later edition of the *Orthodoxographa*, Basel 1569, Vol. I, page 180, folio.

Isocrates’ *Paraenesis*, that is, *Precepts on Duties or Honest Morals for Adolescents*. His oration *To Nicocles, on Kingship*. Agapetus’s *Admonitory Exposition to the Emperor Justinian*. All these in Greek with Latin translation. *Sentences collected from various authors and arranged in alphabetical order*. Lyons, by Jo. Tornaesius, royal printer, 1579, 12mo, without any preface by the editor.

— *On Correctly Administering the Empire*, Greek and Latin. Paris 1563, 8vo (according to Adelung, *l. c.*). It seems to be the same edition, cited thus by Maittaire *A. T.* Vol. III, p. 728: *Agapetus’s Admonitory Chapters on Correctly Administering the Empire*, Greek and Latin, by Guil. Morel, Paris 1563, 8vo. — *The same translated into French by Jehan Picot, President of Inquests*. Paris,chez Guil. Morel, 1563, 8vo. — Greek, Latin, and German: *The truly golden little book of Agapetus, corresponding in a triple idiom*. Collected by Andr. Werner. Magdeburg, 8vo; the dedication is written on the 24th of Aug. 1587.

*Princeps Agapetianus*, edited by Edo Neuhusius, Frankfurt 1603, 8vo. (Adelung, from the Royal Parisian Library.) It is perhaps only a Latin poetical version of his. HARL.

In the *Compendium of Moral Precepts* of Martin Hayneccius, Leipzig 1600, 8vo. — Collected at Herborn, 1605, 8vo, with the version of Matthias Martinius, and at Bremen 1605, 12mo; and 1615, 8vo [1615, 12mo, according to Adelung *l.c.*]. These two editions, not seen by me, are mentioned by Hendreich in the *Brandenburg Pandects*, and Carolus Arndius in the *Schediasma of the more difficult Greek library*, Rostock 1702, which entire ^D work is about the inscription of the work: *Gnomonical Booklet, containing a general exposition of good and useful sentences in Greek and Latin, suited for the instruction of youth, but which nonetheless could be useful to adults as well*.

And first, Fabricius observes that Agapetus’s *Exerty* (sic) was revised by Camerarius from the manuscript of Joannes Sambucus, and compared with the Cologne edition published fifty-two years earlier. (Therefore, if that *Gnomonical Booklet* is the one I mentioned a little earlier, printed in 1569, it came from the press.) Then Fabricius in a note in the same place notes that Agapetus’s chapters are called by the Greeks *schedēn basilikēn*, or *schedia basilika*, by which names is signified a composition less elaborate, a work of hurried manufacture, and as it were a commentary pertaining to the consideration of kings. But our translation was somewhat more labored, in the effort to reflect that form of Greek oratory, composed in a panegyrical style. Camerarius deemed the Greek scholia which he found in Sambucus’s manuscript unworthy of publication: for he says he considered the added childish explanation of words in the Sambucus booklet neither necessary at this time nor in agreement with our purpose. The author of those scholia, still unpublished, is Moschopulus, from which I gave certain excerpts in Vol. XII of this *Bibliotheca Graeca*, page 306 seq. Thus far Fabricius.

*Little work On the Duty of a King, to Emperor Justinian*, in Greek. Cologne, Euchar. Cervicorn, 1527, 4to, by Hamberger. — *Exposition of the Admonitory Chapters by Agapetus the Deacon*, edited accordingly. In Greek, Paris, from the press of Steph. Prevosteau, 1604, 4to. See Maittaire *A. T.* in the Index, p. 14. HARL.

^A Mention is also made by the same Hendreich of editions by Andreas Werner (who translated it into Latin, Magdeburg, 8vo, as did Peter Bizzari), Conrad Rittershusius, Leipzig, 1611, 12mo, and Johannes Bercovius and Henricus Kitschius, Leipzig, 1613, 4to [a. 1610, 4to, cf. Adelung, *loc. cit.*].

The Exposition of the Parænetic Chapters, with notes by Stephanus Schoeningius, Franeker, 1608, 8vo, together with the admonitions of Saint Nilus and the little book *On Virtues* which is attributed to Aristotle [re-edited Görlitz, 1679, 8vo]. With a double version, dissertations, examples, and questions by Georg Draudius, Frankfurt, 1615, 4to; and 1659, 4to. In the *Auctarium Bibliothecæ Patrum Ducæano*, Paris, 1624, folio, vol. II, p. 362; and vol. XII of the *Bibliotheca Patrum Morelliana*, Paris, 1644, p. 607.

Agapetus’s *Royal Schedule* and the exhortations of Basil the Macedonian to his son Leo, with a version reviewed by Bernhard Damke of Hamburg, and his notes added [sufficiently copious], Basel, 1633, 8vo [also used the Cologne edition, 1517].

Agapetus’s *Royal Schedule*, purged of errors and explained by P. Guerin, Paris, 1655, 8vo. FABR. The inscription in Būnau’s *Catalogus*, vol. III, vol. I, p. 99, is: Agapetus’s *Admonitory Chapters LXXII*, for the Emperor Justinian, in Greek and Latin, from the correction and with the explanation of P. Guerin, Paris, Seb. Cramoisy, 1635, 8vo. — Expository Admonition with a familiar explanation of all the terms, by Guid. Britonellus, Paris, 1634, 8vo (Adelung, from the Royal Library of Paris). Maittaire in *A. T.* in the Index, p. 14, cites another edition: Agapetus’s *Expository Admonition*, Greek with Latin version and explanation by Guid. Britonellus, etc., Paris, press of Jo. Libert, 1659, 8vo. HARL. With notes by Jac. Bruno and his son, Jac. Pancratius Bruno, Leipzig and Nuremberg, 1669, 8vo. [See what I have noted in *Introductio in Historiam Linguae Graecae*, II, part I, p. 406.] The edition of Bruno has been repeated and augmented in the following edition: Agapetus’s *Royal Schedule of Precepts on the Duty of a Good Prince* for the Emperor Justinian, reviewed with notes by Jac. and Jac. Pancratius Bruno, and equipped with indices by Jo. Augustin Groebelius. Leipzig, Jo. Chr. Martini, 1735, 8vo. HARL.

^B *Latin editions of Agapetus.* In Baronius, to the year 527, n. 4 sqq. In the *Bibliotheca Patrum*, Paris, 1575, 1624, vol. II, p. 363, and in other Parisian editions, the Cologne edition, and finally in the Lyons edition, vol. IX. From the version of Albanus Torinus, Basel, 1541, 8vo, at the end of Onosander, from the press of Robert Winter. From the heroic paraphrase of Menrad Molther, Haguenau, 1527, 8vo. From the version and with the scholia of Jacob Huggelius, Mulhouse, 1560, 8vo. From the version of Joach. Axonius, Gravianus, Antwerp, 1561, 8vo. Halle, Saxony, 1593, 8vo, for Jo. Sigismund, Margrave of Brandenburg, by the care of Jo. Olearius, with the chapters of the Augsburg Confession and the Book of Concord adjoined. Distributed into LXXII aphorisms and rendered into Latin elegiac verses by Edo Neuhusius, Steinfurt, 1603, Frankfurt, 8vo; with Otto Casmann’s *System of Political Doctrine and Life*.

^C *French, Spanish, German.* In French, by Jean Picot, Paris, 1563, 8vo. Later by Hieronymus Beneventanus, ibid., 8vo. Then, translated by Pardulphus Prateius, Lyons, 1570, 8vo. And from the version of Louis XIII, King of France: *Les preceptes d'Agapetus a Justinien, sur une version Latine, par le roi Louis XIII, en ses leçons ordinaires*, Paris, 1612, 8vo. In Spanish, by Christophorus Mosquera de Figueroa, Madrid, 1596, 4to. *Reglas para los que gobiernan*. In German, translated by Martin Moller, Gorlitz, 1590 [others 1594], 1605, 8vo. And from the version of Nicolaus Glajer, Bremen, 1619, 4to; with the *Philomela* and Lucian's *On Calumny* and the *Tablet of Cebes*. FABR. *Regentenbüchlein*, Wittenberg, 1530, 4to. The preface has the author Nic. Krumbach. Cf. *Beiträge zur kritischen Historie der deutschen Sprache*, etc., part x, p. 201 sqq., and concerning this and other German translations, see the distinguished Degen in *Litteratur der deutschen Uebersetzung der Griechen*, vol. I, p. 48 sqq. The same author, in *Nachtrag zu der Litteratur*, etc., Erlangen, 1801, 8vo, p. 13 (as I have already noted above), reviews a German version in *Griechische Sprachübung*, etc., Cöthen, 1620, 8vo. In the *Memorabilien* *Beiträgen*, etc., a second (or rather third) edition of Moller's German version, with Greek text and Latin translation, *Agapetus, i.e., Regentenbüchlein*, etc., is said to have appeared, 1648, 8vo. The booklet was translated into German by an anonymous author, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1782, 8vo. In English, the booklet was translated by Thomas Paynell, London, from the press of Thomas Berthelet, 12mo, without a date year. *Introduction to wifedome, Banket of Sapience, and precepts of Agapetus*, London, printed for Abraham Veale, without indication of year, 16mo; and London, in Fleet Street, in the house of Thomas Berthelet, 1530, 12mo. See Brueggemann, *View, etc.*, p. 442. Regarding the Italian version, Venice, 1515, 8vo. See Paitoni, *Bibliot. degli autori volgarizzati*, I, p. 8.

NOTITIA

I shall place here Excerpts from Moschopulus on Agapetus, which Fridericus Lindenbruch—otherwise known as Tiliobroga—had transcribed from a Florentine codex in the Marcian library, and which Fabricius, in *B. Gr.*, vol. XII, page 306, had made public:

1. *Skimpous*, a footstool. 2. *Skene*, a leather tent. 4. *Byssos*, the red dye, which is commonly called *alethinon* (true), and it is called so from *buein* the *essous*, that is, the eyes. The red garment is also called *byssos*; *belos* is purple cloth. 9. *Katopptron*, and *enoptron*, and *esoptron* differ. For *katopptron* is that which is called *kathruptios*, *esoptron* is what is called a lantern; the *dioptra* is an instrument for astronomers, such as the one called an astrolabe. 10. *Plekto*, a rope. An *Hermaic* stele, a figure carved from stone. *Hermis*, a bedpost. 11. *Istor*, the knowledgeable one. 12. *Aiora*, from which comes *aiora*, a *kremthra* (swing/gallow). *Rupapai*, a nautical shout. 13. *Aychtes*, a battle. It comes from *daio*, to kindle. Because of the heat of those fighting; or otherwise, because of the famed torches, which the torch-bearers would throw into the middle of the armies, igniting the war. And this was a signal for battle, before the invention of the trumpet. Hence the proverb is also used in cases of total destruction: "Not even a torch-bearer was left behind." 27. *Ananke*, necessity or force, as Aeschylus says:

The strength of necessity is invincible.

26. *Belos*, royal purple cloth. *Belathra*, purple cloth. *Bikos*, a type of pulse, and the one called *haloxystes*. *Bistakion*, a written order. 29. *Stupion*, the remains and waste of processed olives, namely, the dregs. 32. Note also this: *sidros* (iron), *pithokos* (monkey), *kibdelos* (spurious), and *kassiteros* (tin), 'iota' and 'eta'. As for *xiphlinos*, 'lambda', etc. 38. *Pareia*, a cheek. 57. *Pera*, a small bag. *Glia*, glue. *Glekon*, commonly *bliskounion* (pennyroyal). 67. *Odous* is called a *odontion* (little tooth). *Odous* for roads: the straight one, the way.