he had the good fortune to survive every danger. Nor did he seek a safety for himself alone; his virtue so recommended him to the leaders of every side, that he was able to save not himself alone, but the lives and fortunes of many of his friends." When we look to this amiable character, we may well suppose, that it was not merely for amusement that he chose to live at Athens; but rather that, by residing there, he might so far realize philosophy, as to employ it for the conduct of life, and not merely for ostentation. Another person, during a better period, (that I mean between Nerva and Marcus Antoninus,) was equally celebrated for his affection to this city. By this person I mean Herodes Atticus, who acquired the last name from the same reasons for which it had formerly been given to Pomponius.P We have remarked already, that vicissitudes befall both men and cities, and changes too often happen from prosperous to adverse. Such was the state of Athens under the successors of Alexander, and so on from Sylla down to the time of Augustus. It shared the same hard fate with the Roman empire in general upon the accession of Commodus. At length, after a certain period, the Barbarians of the north began to pour into the south. Rome was taken by Alaric, and Athens was besieged by the same. Yet here we are informed (at least we learn so from history) that it was miraculously saved by Minerva and Achilles. The goddess, it seems, and the hero both of them appeared, compelling the invader to raise the siege. r S It was thus, we are told, that, many years before, Castor and Pollux had fought for the Romans; and that, many centuries afterwards, St. George, at Iconium, discomfited the Saracens ;" nay, so late as in the sixteenth century, a gallant Spaniard, Peter de Paz, was seen to assist his countrymen, some months after his decease, when they made an assault at the siege of Antwerp.* The life of this extraordinary man is finely and fully written by Cornelius Nepos, a life well worthy of perusal. See also the large and valuable collection of confidential letters, addressed to him by Cicero. P See Fabric. Bibl. Græc. vol. iv. p. 371. and Suidas, under the word Herodes. See Zosimi Histor. 1. v. c. 5, 6. p. 511, &c. edit. Gr. Lat. 8vo. 1679. where the whole story is related at length. See Florus, 1. i. 2; l. ii. 12. Justin. 1. xx. 3. Fuller's Holy War, p. 27. Matt. Paris, p. 43. According to this last author, there were three that fought, St. George, St. Demetrius, and St. Mercury. The following extract is taken from the Disquisitiones Magica of Martin Del-Rio, printed at Mentz, an. 1617. cum gratia et privilegio Cæsar. Majest. together with the approbation of Oliverius Manarcus, viceprovincial of the Belgic Jesuits, and Gulielmus Fabricius, styled Apostolicus et regius librorum censor; and attested also by the evidence Multorum gravium militum, qui vidisse se sancte jurabant. The besieged, it seems, and their allies, the Dutch and English, were upon the point of forcing a post (aggerem) possessed by the Spaniards, who besieged the city. DelRio's words after this are, Tum a regiis militibus (Hispanis scil.) primo paucioribus conspectus prope aggerem Petrus de Paz, Hispanus tribunus, vir et militarib. et pietatis ornamentis laudatissimus, qui, jam mensibus aliquot ante defunctus, visus his Instead of giving my own sentiments upon these events, I choose to give those of an abler man upon a similar subject. After having related some singular stories of equal probability, lord Bacon concludes with the following observation. "My judgment (says he) is, that they (he means the stories) ought all to be despised, and ought to serve but for winter-talk by the fireside. Though when I say despised, I mean it as for belief; for otherwise the spreading or publishing of them is in no sort to be despised, for they have done much mischief."" Synesius, who lived in the fifth century, visited Athens, and gives in his Epistles an account of his visit. Its lustre appears at that time to have been greatly diminished. Among other things he informs us, that the celebrated portico or colonnade, the Greek name of which gave name to the sect of Stoics, had by an oppressive proconsul been despoiled of its fine pictures; and that, on this devastation, it had been forsaken by those philosophers.* In the thirteenth century, when the Grecian empire was cruelly oppressed by the crusaders, and all things in confusion, Athens was besieged by one Segurus Leo, who was unable to take it; and, after that, by a marquis of Montserrat, to whom it surrendered." Its fortune after this was various; and it was sometimes under the Venetians, sometimes under the Catalonians, till Mahomet the Great made himself master of Constantinople. This fatal catastrophe (which happened near two thousand years after the time of Pisistratus) brought Athens, and with it all Greece, into the hands of the Turks, under whose despotic yoke it has continued ever since. The city from this time has been occasionally visited, and descriptions of it published by different travellers. Wheeler was there along with Spon, in the time of our Charles the Second, and both of them have published curious and valuable narratives. Others, as well natives of this island as foreigners, have been there since, and some have given (as Monsr. Le Roy) specious publications of what we are to suppose they saw. None however have equalled the truth, the accuracy, and elegance of Mr. Stuart, who, after having resided there between three and four years, has given us such plans and elevations of the capital buildings now standing, together with learned comments to elucidate every part, that he seems, as far as was possible for the power of description, to have restored the city to its ancient splendour. He has not only given us the greater outlines and their measures, but separate measures and drawings of the minuter decorations; so that a British artist may (if he please) follow Phidias, and build in Britain as Phidias did at Athens." Spon, speaking of Attica, says that the road near Athens was pleasing, and the very peasants polished. Speaking of the Athenians in general, he says of them, "Ils ont une politesse d'esprit naturelle, et beaucoup d'addresse dans toutes les affaires, qu'ils enterprenent."a Wheeler, who was Spon's fellow-traveller, says as follows, when he and his company approached Athens: "We began now to think ourselves in a more civilized country than we had yet passed: for not a shepherd that we met but bid us welcome, and wished us a good journey." p. 335. Speaking of the Athenians, he adds, "This must with great truth be said of them, their bad fortune hath not been able to take from them what they have by nature, that is, much subtlety or wit." p. 347. And again, "The Athenians, notwithstanding the long possession that barbarism hath had of this place, seem to be much more polished in point of manners and conversation, than any other in these parts; being civil, and of respectful behaviour to all, and highly complimental in their discourse."b Stuart says of the present Athenians, what Spon and Wheeler said of their forefathers: he found in them the same address, the same natural acuteness, though severely curbed by their despotic masters. One custom I cannot omit. He tells me, that frequently at their convivial meetings, one of the company takes what they now call a lyre, though it is rather a species of guitar, and after a short prelude on the instrument, as if he were waiting for inspiration, accompanies his instrumental music with his voice, suddenly chanting some extempore verses, which seldom exceed two or three distichs; that he then delivers the lyre to his neighbour, who, after he has done the same, delivers it to another; and that so the lyre circulates, till it has passed round the table. Nor can I forget his informing me, that, notwithstanding the various fortune of Athens, as a city, Attica was still famous for olives, and mount Hymettus for honey. Human institutions perish, but nature is permanent. This most curious and valuable book was published at London, in the year 1762. a Spon, vol. ii. p. 76, 92. edit. 8vo. CHAPTER IV. ACCOUNT OF BYZANTINE SCHOLARS CONTINUED SUIDAS-JOHN STOBÆUS, OR OF STOBA-PHOTIUS-MICHAEL PSELLUS-THIS LAST SAID TO HAVE COMMENTED TWENTY-FOUR PLAYS OF MENANDER-REASONS TO MAKE THIS PROBABLE-EUSTATHIUS, A BISHOP, THE COMMENTATOR OF HOMER-EUSTRATIUS, A BISHOP, THE COMMENTATOR of ARISTOTLE— PLANUDES, A MONK, THE ADMIRER AND TRANSLATOR OF LATIN CLASSICS, AS WELL AS THE COMPILER OF ONE OF THE PRESENT GREEK ANTHOLOGIES-CONJECTURES CONCERNING THE DURATION OF THE LATIN TONGUE AT CONSTANTINOPLE. THAT I may not be prolix, I hasten from the writers already mentioned to Suidas, who is supposed to have lived during the ninth or tenth centuries. In his Lexicon, which is partly historical, partly explanatory, he has preserved many quotations from authors who lived in the earlier and politer ages, and from poets in particular, whose works at present are for the greater part lost. Kuster, an able critic in the beginning of the present century, gave a fine edition of this author, at Cambridge, in three volumes folio; and Mr. Toupe of Cornwall (whom I have mentioned already, and cannot mention with too much applause) has lately favoured the learned world with many valuable emendations.c John Stobæus, or of Stoba, (whose name John makes it probable he was a Christian,) is of an uncertain age, as well as Suidas; though some imagine him to have lived during an earlier period, by two or three centuries. His work is not a lexicon, like that of the other, but an immense common-place, filled with extracts upon various subjects, both ethical and physical, which extracts he had collected from the most approved writers. As this book is highly valuable, from containing such incredible variety of sentiments upon interesting topics, and those taken from authors many of whom are lost; as it is at the same time so incorrectly printed, that in too many places it is hardly intelligible; it would be a labour well worthy an able critic, by the help of manuscripts and plausible conjecture, to restore it, as far as possible, to its original purity. The speculations he chiefly gives us are neither trivial nor licentious, but, in the language of Horace, Quod magis ad nos Pertinet, et nescire malum est. But to return from Stobæus to Suidas. If we consider the See Fabric. Biblioth. Græc. vol. viii. 665. e Concerning this little-known author, see the preface of his learned editor, Kuster. late age when Suidas lived; if we consider, too, the authors which he must needs have studied, in order to form his work; authors who, many of them, wrote in the most refined and polished ages; it will be evident, that even in those late centuries the taste for a purer literature was by no means extinct, and that even then there were readers who knew its value. In the ninth century lived Photius, patriarch of Constantinople. His most celebrated work may be called a journal of his studies; a journal where we learn the various authors he perused, the subjects they treated, the plans of their works, and where sometimes, also, we have extracts. From him we are informed, not only of many authors now lost, but what was in his time the state of many that are now remaining. Among the authors now lost, he perused Theopompus the historian, and Hyperides the orator; among those now mutilated and imperfect, he perused entire Diodorus Siculus. Many others, if necessary, might be added of either sort. It is singular, with regard to Photius, that from a layman he was raised at once to be patriarch of Constantinople. Yet his studies evidently seem to have had such a rank in view, being principally applied to theology, to history, and to oratory; with enough philosophy and medicine not to appear deficient, if such subjects should occur. As to poetry, one might imagine, either that he had no relish for it, or that, in the train of his inquiries, he did not esteem it a requisite. Michael Psellus, of the eleventh century, was knowing in the Greek philosophy and poetry of the purer ages, and for his various and extensive learning was ranked among the first and ablest scholars of his time. Besides his treatise of Mathematics, his comments upon Aristotle, and a number of other works, (many of which are printed,) he is said to have commented and explained no less than twentyfour comedies of Menander, a treatise now lost, though extant as well as the comedies in so late a period. He must have had a relish for that polite writer, or otherwise it is not probable he would have undertaken such a labour.f Nor need we wonder this should happen. Why should not the polite Menander have had his admirers in these ages, as well as the licentious Aristophanes? Or rather, why not as well as Sophocles and Euripides? The scholia upon these (though some, e See Fabric. Bibl. Græc. vol. ix. 369. f See Fabric. Bibl. Græc. vol. i. 769. In the passage quoted by Fabricius upon this subject, its author says, that the latter Greek monks persuaded the latter Greek emperors, to destroy Menander and many other of the old Greek poets, from the looseness of their morals, and their great indecencies. That the monks may have persuaded this, is not improbable; perhaps from bigotry, perhaps from a consciousness of their own wretched inferiority in every species of elegant composition, but certainly from no indignation against indecency and immorality. For if so, why preserve Lucian? why preserve Aristophanes? why preserve collections of epigrams, more indecent and flagitious than the grossest productions of the most licentious modern ages? |