PREFACE TO SPCK EDITION

IT is proposed to issue the present translation of the Bibliotheca of Photius in five volumes; a sixth will contain an account of his life and works, a Bibliography, and a General Index to the whole.

A translator of the Bibliotheca has apparently an open field. So far as can be ascertained, no complete version exists in English or any other modern language, although there are English translations or editions of some of the longer extracts (e.g. Ctesias' Indica), of some of the literary criticisms,¹ of selected codices (chiefly on profane authors) in Italian by G. Compagnoni,² a well-known Milanese literary man and statesman (1754-1834), and of the whole in Latin by the learned Jesuit Andreas Schott³ in Migne's Patrologia Graeca (vol. ciii.).

The text ⁴ is unfortunately in many places unsatisfactory, and no critical edition has been attempted for nearly a hundred years—since 1824, the date of Immanuel Bekker's edition. The nature of the work, a sort of enlarged table of contents, often leaves the meaning and connexion obscure, when there exist no complete texts⁵ or other means of supplementing it. The present translator, in the endeavour to obtain as satisfactory a rendering as possible, has constantly consulted the most important literary, theological, and historical works and encyclopaedias bearing on the wide field covered by the extensive reading of Photius. Naturally, there is little scope for elegance of translation, and in the literary criticisms it is by no means easy to find a correct and adequate English equivalent for the terms used.

In the matter of notes, the number of personal and geographical names, of historical allusions, is so large that any attempt to deal with them at length would have swamped the text and reduced it to a kind of peg on which to hang a miniature encyclopaedia. In the case of persons familiar to all only a brief note has been given, sufficient for the purposes of identification (often necessary where there are several persons of the same name), so that those desirous of further information should know for whom to look in the usual biographical and other dictionaries. In the case of names less familiar and points arising directly from the text, the details given are somewhat fuller. In the Bibliography a list of the most useful general works of reference and of special editions or accounts of the authors criticised in the Bibliotheca will be given. The present work makes no claim to contain a complete exegetical or critical commentary, but is a somewhat free translation intended to give the ordinary reader an idea of the literary activity of the chief representative of the so-called Byzantine Renaissance.

J.H.FREESE.
1920

¹ G. Saintsbury, History of Criticism, i.176 ; La Rue van Hook in Transactions of the American Philological Association (xxxviii. 1907) and Classical Philology (iv. Chicago, 1909), and here and there in books such as Hodgkin's Italy and her Invaders, Bury's Later Roman Empire.

² Vols. xlv. xlvi. of Biblioteca Scelta di opere greche e latine.

³ Born and died at Antwerp (1552-1629). After a wandering life he finally settled down as professor of Greek at the Jesuit college in his native city. He was an indefatigable translator and editor. The translation of Photius is of unequal merit, and it is supposed that in parts it is the work of a young and less competent colleague.

⁴ See E. Martini, Textgeschichte der Bibliothek des Patriarchen Photios (1911).

⁵ It would be difficult, for instance, to get a clear idea of the story of Heliodorus's Theagenes and Chariclea from Photius's abstract alone.

[NOTE:  A complete version with facing Greek text and French translation does now exist, edited by René Henry.  Only vol. 1 of Freese's translation was ever issued.]

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF AUTHORS CRITICISED IN VOL. I

Achilles, Tatius. Clitophon and Leucippe (LXXXVII)
Acts of the disputation of heretics, held before John, patriarch of Constantinople (XXIV)
Adrian (Hadrian). Introduction to the Scriptures (II)
Adrian (Hadrian), emperor. Declamations (C)
Aeschines. Orations and Letters (LXI)
Against the Jews and Quartodecimans. Anonymous (CXV)
Amyntianus. On Alexander the Great (CXXXI)
Andronicianus. A gainst the Eunomians (XLV)
Aphthonius. Declamations (CXXXIII)
Apolinarius of Hierapolis. Against the Heathen, On Piety and Truth (XIV)
Apology for Origen and his Doctrines. Anonymous (CXVII)
Appian. Roman History (LVII)
Arrian . Parthica, Bithynica, Discourses of Epictetus (LVIII); Indica, Campaigns of Alexander the Great (XCI): Events after the Death of Alexander (XCII); Bithynica, The Acts of Dion and Timoleon (XCIII)
Athanasius. Letters (XXXII); Commentary on Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs (CXXXIX); Against Arius (CXL)
Basil of Cilicia. Ecclesiastical History (XLII); Against John Scythopolita (CVII)
Basil the Great. Refutation of Eunomius (CXXXVIII); Ascetica (CXLIV) ; Hexaemeron (CXLI); Moral Discourses (CXLII); Letters (CXLIII)
Boethus. List of Platonic Words (CLIV); Doubtful Words in Plato (CLV)
Caius (Gaius) Presbyter. On the Universe (XLVIII)
Candidus. Histories (LXXIX)
Cephalion. Historical Epitome (LXVIII)
Charinus, Lucius. Travels of the Apostles.(CXIV)
Choricius. Declamations (CLX)
Clement (Titus Flavius Clemens), presbyter, of Alexandria. Outlines (CIX); The Tutor (CX); Stromateis (CXI)
Clement (Clemens Romanus), bishop of Rome. Apostolic Constitutions, Recognitions (CX1I, CXIII); Epistles to the Corinthians (CXXVI)
Conon. Against Philoponus (XXIII)
Cosmas Indicopleustes. Christian Topography, Exposition of the Octateuch (XXXVI)
Ctesias. Persica (LXXII)
Cyril of Alexandria. Against Nestorius (XLIX); Thesauri (CXXXVI)

Damascius. Incredible Things (CXXX) 
Dexippus. Events after the Death of Alexander, Historical Epitome (LXXXII)  
Diodorus. Lexicon to the Ten Orators (CL)
Diodorus Siculus. History (LXX) Diodorus of Tarsus. On the Holy Spirit (CII)
Dio(n) Cassius. History (LXXI) 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus. History (LXXXIII, LXXXIV) 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Aelius. Attic Words (CLII) 
Dorotheus. New and Foreign Words in Plato (CLVI)

Epiphanius. Panaria (CXXII), Ancoratus (CXXIII) ; Weights and Measures (CXXIV)
Eugenius. Against Philoponus (XXIII)
Eunapius. Chronicle (continuing Dexippus) (LXXVII)
Eunomius. Heretical treatise (CXXXVII); its refutation by Basil (CXXXVIII)
Eusebius (sophist). Declamations (CXXXIV)
Eusebius of Caesarea. Various Writings (IX-XIII); Ecclesiastical History (XXVII); Against Hierocles (XXXIX); Defence of Origen (CXVIII); Life of Constantine (CXXVII)
Eusebius of Thessalonica. Against Andrew the Monk (CLXII)
Evagrius. Ecclesiastical History (XXIX)

Gaius, see Caius
Galen. On Medical Schools (CLXIV)
Gelasius of Cyzicus. Proceedings of the First Synod (XV) ; Ecclesiastical History (LXXXVIII) ;
Preface to Additions to the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius (LXXXIX); Against the Anomoeans (CII)
George, bishop of Alexandria. Life of John Chrysostom (XCVI)
Gregory of Nyssa. In Support of St. Basil against Eunomius (VI, VII)

Heliodorus. Aethiopica (LXXIII) Helladius. Lexicon (CXLV) 
Heraclian, bishop of Chalcedon. Against the Manichaeans (LXXXV)
Herodian. History (XCIX) 
Herodotus. History (LX) 
Hesychius Illustrius (of Miletus). History, Acts of Justin the Elder (LXIX)
Hesychius (presbyter, of Constantinople). Discourses on the Brazen Serpent (LI) 
Himerius. Declamations (CLXV) 
Hippolytus Romanus. Against Heresies (CXXI)

Iamblichus. Rhodanes and Sinonis (XCIV) 
Irenaeus. Against Heresies (CXX) 
Isocrates. Orations (CLIX)

John Chrysostom. Letters to Olympias and Others (LXXXVI)
John Philoponus. On the Resurrection (XXI) ; On the Creation (XLIII); Against the Fourth Synod (LV); Against John Scholasticus, patriarch of Constantinople (LXXV)
John (presbyter, of Aegae). Ecclesiastical History(XLI); Against the Fourth Synod (LV)
John Scythopolita. Against the Eutychians (XCV)
Josephus. On the Universe (XLVIII); On the Jewish War (XLVII); On the Antiquities of the Jews (LXXVI) 
Julian. Lexicon to the Ten Orators (CL)
Julius Africanus. History (XXXIV) 
Justin Martyr. Apology (CXXV) 
Justus of Tiberias. Chronicle of the Jewish Kings (XXXIII)

Lesbonax. Political Orations (LXXIV)
Lexica. Of the Pure Style (CXLVI); Of the Serious Style (CXLVII); Of Political Style (CXLVIII); Of the Ten Orators (CXLV-CLIX)
Libanius. Orations and Letters (XC)
Lucian. Various Works. Dialogues of the Dead and Of Courtesans (CXXVIII)
Lucius of Patrae. Metamorphoses (CXXIX)

Malchus. History (LXXVIII) 
Maximus. Declamations (CXXXV) 
Metrodorus. On Easter (CXV) 
Moeris. The Atticist (CLVII)

Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople . Historical Epitome (LXVI) 
Nicias (the monk). Against Philoponus, Severus, and the Heathen (L) 
Nonnosus. History (III)

Olympiodorus. History (LXXX)
On the Easter Festival (Anonymous) (CXVI)
Orators, the ten, Lexica to (CXLV-CLIX)
Origen. On First Principles (VIII)

Palladius. Declamations (CXXXII) 
Pamphilus. Apology for Origen (CXVIII) 
Pausanias. Lexicon (CLIII)
Philip of Side. Christian History (XXXV)
Philo Judaeus. Allegories of the Sacred Laws and On Political Life (CIII); On the Essenes and Therapeutae (CIV); His Censure of the Emperor Caius and Flaccus (CV)
Philostorgius. Ecclesiastical History (XL)
Philostratusof Tyre. Life of Apollonius of Tyana (XLIV)
Phlegon of Tralles. List of Olympic Victors and Chronicle (XCVII)
Phrynichus the Arabian. Oratorical Equipment (CLVIII)
Pierius Presbyter. Various Writings (CXIX)
Pollio. Lexicon (CXL1X)
Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians (CXXVI)
Praxagoras. Life of Constantine the Great (LXII)
Proceedings of the bishops of the West against the Nestorians and Pelagians (LIV)
Procopius of Caesarea. Histories (LXIII)
Procopius of Gaza. Orations; Translations of Homer (CLX)

Sergius Confessor. History (LXVII) 
Socrates. Ecclesiastical History (XXVIII)
Sopater. Excerpts (CLXI) 
Sophronius. In Defence of Basil against Eunomius (V) 
Sozomen. Ecclesiastical History (XXX)
Synesius. Writings (XXVI) Synod of "The Oak" (LIX) Synod of Side (LII) Synods, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh (XVI-XX)

Themistius. Commentaries on Aristotle and Plato ; Political Orations (LXXIV) ; Apology for Theophobius (CVIII)
Theodore of Alexandria, monk. Against Themistius (CVIII)
Theodore of Antioch. In Defence of Basil against Eunomius (IV) ; Commentary on Genesis (XXXVIII); On Persian Magic (LXXXI)
Theodoret. Ecclesiastical History (XXXI, LVI), Eranistes (XLVI)
Theodorus Presbyter. On the Writings of Dionysius the Areopagite (I)
Theodosius, monk. Against John Philoponus (XXII) 
Theognostus of Alexandria. Outlines (CVI)
Theophanes of Byzantium (LXIV) 
Theophylact Simocatta (LXV) 
Timaeus. Platonic Lexicon (CLI)

Victorinus, son of Lampadius. Consular Orations (CI) 
Vindanius Anatolius. Works on Husbandry (CLXIII)

Zosimus, Count. History (XCVIII)

This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 3rd July 2002.  All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.